Calvin Welcomes Entrada Scholars

Summary: Calvin College will host high school students from 18 different states
this month, immersing them in a total college experience.

On Sunday, June 21, 68 high school students from around the nation will
descend on Calvin's campus. The students, who hail from 18 different
states—from Hawaii to Florida, New York to Texas—are all coming to west
Michigan for the Entrada Scholars program.

Entrada is Spanish for "gateway." It offers high school juniors and seniors of
color an opportunity to have a total college experience. For four weeks the
students will be staying in the residence halls, eating in the dining halls,
taking a Calvin summer school college course, and participating in a number of
activities, all alongside college students.

Each scholar takes a three or four-credit course and is assigned an academic
coach, a trained teacher who attends classes with the scholars in the morning
and leads a study period with the scholars following the class.

The students earn college credit. But associate director of pre-college
programs Tasha Paul says that the scholars benefit from having a total college
experience.

"They [the students] have grown and developed as scholars, in their
understanding of community and their understanding of themselves as being
called by God for greatness," said Paul.

Entrada, now in its 23rd year, has produced impressive results. 95 percent of
students who have gone through the program and have completed high school go on
to pursue some form of higher education—a reason why other institutions have
used this program as a model. In fact, in 2007, through a $25,000 Lilly Network
Exchange grant, administrators from 13 peer colleges and universities came to
Calvin to study the program firsthand.

The Entrada scholars have a special graduation ceremony on Thursday, July 16
in Calvin's Gezon Auditorium.

Contact Tasha Paul at 616-526-6888.

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Received on Fri Jun 5 11:41:08 2009