ACES Early College Awareness Program (Access, Confidence, Education, Success)

The goal of the ACES program is to help fifth and sixth grade students at the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School become more aware of the opportunities a college education offers, understand financial aid and scholarships, and learn about the importance of planning ahead and developing good habits for future success. The program also aims to give Lasell College student mentors leadership experience, encourage social responsibility, and facilitate exploration of possible careers working with youth.

The ACES program was originally created through a partnership between Lasell College’s Center for Community-Based Learning (CCBL) and the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School. After building a relationship between the two institutions through several years of success with the America Reads and America Counts tutoring programs, Professor Sharyn Lowenstein, Director of the CCBL, and Jessica Dugan, Director of Development and Partnerships at Boston Renaissance, decided to implement a much needed early college awareness program.

Over the past 4 years ACES has proven to be an extremely successful program and has continued to grow. During the 2010- 2011 academic year over 200 fifth and sixth grade students were able to receive an in-class college lesson and attend a field trip to the Lasell college campus. During their visits, the students had the chance to attend educational activities that included: visiting college courses, campus tours, eating in the cafeteria, speaking on the Lasell College radio station and interacting with college students in different ways. 15 BRCPS students also received additional college lessons during their afterschool program, while 15 other students returned to campus for a Shadow Day with a college student. Attending BRCPS’s College Night also afforded Lasell College students an opportunity to showcase their work.

Through the success of the partnership with BRCPS, the AmeriCorps VISTA continued to expand the program to new partnerships with the Boston Boys and Girls Club and Science Club for Girls. These groups also came to the Lasell campus for their own campus visits geared to their own specific needs. The Lasell College mentors all had very positive feedback about their experience working with the youth. Because of this, the awareness around campus about the program has also spread. In the past year the program had over 60 Lasell College students volunteer a total of almost 350 hours of service through the program. 17 Lasell courses hosted the students in their classrooms, and 6 student clubs hosted activities.

During this upcoming academic year the estimated number of BRCPS students has increased to 250 students for a total of 5 Campus Visits in the fall. The VISTA has already had multiple conversations with other partners who are interested in pursuing more campus visits for their programs. Some of the goals for the ACES program over this academic year are to increase the involvement of other offices around campus, strengthen training and reflections for a more consistent volunteer group of students, create a more standard ACES curriculum to use for planning additional visits, and model for other institutions.

Ginelle Gaulin-Mckenzie
Macc AmeriCorps VISTA at Lasell College