The academy's Sigma cohort is one of three that is spending the next three weeks on Elon's campus for courses and college preparation sessions.
Along with the sweets and treats, Elon Academy students found new connections and networking opportunities on Tuesday during an ice cream social by Fonville Fountain.
The annual gathering sponsored by the Office of the President is a way to celebrate a new Elon Academy cohort and the start of the program’s summer experience. The gathering for the campus community offers an opportunity for these Alamance County students to connect with Elon faculty and staff as they begin a three-week session that combines academic courses with college preparation sessions. It’s a broad learning experience that is central to the year-round Elon Academy, the university’s college access and success program for local high school students.
“It really is the heartbeat of the program,” said Elon Academy Director John Pickett. “It gives us that concentrated face-to-face time with these students that provide the momentum that carries us throughout each school year. It’s reinvigorating and critical to the relationships these students develop, which is really what makes Elon Academy work.”
Launched by the university in 2007, the Elon Academy is an intensive college access and success program for local high school students with high financial need or no family history of attending college. It combines a residential program over three successive summers with follow-up experiences during the academic year.
The two returning cohorts — the Pi and Rho classes — are joined this year by the Sigma Class, which at 27 members is tied for the largest in the history of the program. During the summer session, these 70 students from schools throughout the county will be working with about a dozen Elon faculty members and 12 mentors that include Elon University students as well as Elon Academy college scholars — those who have finished the program and are now in college or university.
Payton Wimbish from Southern Alamance High School is a member of the Rho Class and said the summer session is a great way for student to have an immersive college experience while still in high school. Students, who are living in the university’s Global Neighborhood, take academic classes in the morning followed by college preparation sessions in the afternoon.
Wimbish was enjoying her ice cream with fellow Rho classmates Kim Martinez and Giselle Montes sitting by Fonville Fountain, and all three talked about the friendships and relationships the develop as being key to the experience. Montes said that Elon Academy also provides her with the resources she needs to excel in school and to begin planning for college. “They really do a lot to enable to to do everything we want to do,” Montes said.
Kayleigh Coleman is just three days into her summer session as a member of the Sigma Class. She describes herself as outgoing, and also interested in learning more about becoming an educator once she goes to college. The summer session is also a chance for her to learn what it’s like to live away from home for the first time. “I’m looking to gain independence this summer,” Coleman said.
The Elon Academy classroom is more than what’s on campus. Field trips for the scholars this summer will include visiting offsite locations such as the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro. Many schools have not seen field trips rebound since the pandemic subsided, and this helps fill that void, Picket said.
“Experiential learning like this has become even more important today,” he said.
Noah Butler, Ryan Jones and Ariel Jaklin from the Rho Class were moving through the crowd, introducing themselves and shaking hands. For Butler, the summer experience is helping him learn more about what college will be like so that he can be better prepared once he arrives. “It feels like I have a better foundation for the future for when I go to college,” Butler said.
All three pointed to the relationships they’ve already developed with each other as well as with Elon faculty, staff and students. They referred to the “EA Family,” a group drawn together by the special bonds they form inside and outside of the classroom during their three years together as an Elon Academy cohort.
“It’s all about developing those relationships with people you know you can count on,” said Jaklin, who went to Southern Alamance High School last year. “I don’t think there will ever be an end to those.”