Sara Gould, an elementary education major and Honors Fellow; Sandra Flores, a sophomore at Graham High School; and Lorenzo Davis, a sophomore at Cummings High School, presented April 17 at the Johns Hopkins Summer Learning Conference: Summer Changes Everything.
Their presentation, “Lives Enriched – Lives Transformed: Students Share Their Experiences,” provided the audience with the personal stories of scholar transformation in the Elon Academy, a college-access program for Alamance County high school students.
Although extensive research in education has been conducted concerning transformation in adults, little of that research addresses transformation in high school students. Gould’s qualitative study explored the questions: Are students transformed by an intensive summer learning experience? If so, what is the nature of that transformation? And, what program components are most effective in facilitating that transformation?
Gould is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, the Isabella Cannon Leadership Program, and the Elon University chapter of Habitat for Humanity. After graduation she will be attending the University of Maryland to pursue a degree in Urban and Minority Education. Gould plans to pursue a career teaching in a high-poverty, high-minority elementary school.
Flores and Davis are members of the Elon Academy Beta Class. Flores loves to play soccer and enjoys helping people. Her favorite subject is social studies. She has a 3.88 GPA, and although she is still exploring, she is considering nursing as a future career.
Davis is president of SGA at Cummings High School, a member of the debate team, a member of teen court, and active in his church. Lorenzo has a GPA of 3.75 and hopes one day to be an accountant. Both will be the first in their families to attend college.
The mission of the Elon Academy is to inspire academically oriented students who are often underrepresented on college and university campuses to pursue higher education, build leadership skills and develop an active sense of social responsibility.
Eligible students must have a desire to succeed, be willing to commit to the three-year program, demonstrate academic promise, have no history of disciplinary problems, and demonstrate financial need or have no family history of college attendance.
To find out more information about the Elon Academy and how to support the initiative, click on the link to the right of this page.
– Information submitted by professor Deborah Long