Program integrates classroom, living experiences

This summer, instead of throwing freshmen to the lions, the University will let them into the pride.

An estimated 400 freshmen will participate in the Learning Edge Academic Program this summer. LEAP is designed to offer incoming freshmen a head start in college.

Students in the LEAP program take integrated courses -- two courses designed to be taught together -- said Sally Maud Robertson, (junior-letters, arts and sciences) a LEAP coordinator.

Students in the program are arranged into "prides" of no more than 24 students. These students live on the same floor and go to the same classes.

- Sally Maud Robertson, (junior-letters, arts and sciences

Each pride is also assigned a mentor, a student who goes to class with the pride and lives with them on the floor. The mentors receive free room and board and a stipend.

Robertson said the mentors provide academic guidance to the freshmen.

"It's sort of like an academic RA," she said.

The role of a mentor is different from an RA though, because it focuses on academics, said former mentor Jamie Rayman (senior-biology).

The mentor has no disciplinary responsibilities, there is an RA on the floor to handle that. The mentor must act as a liaison between students and faculty, almost like a teaching assistant, Rayman said.

"There is a lot more stress in being a mentor (than being a TA) because a student can come to you for help any time day or night," she said.

Mentors hold office hours every night in the study lounge of their floor so students can come to study, ask advice and have the mentor proofread papers, Rayman said.

LEAP also provides students with workshops on how to use E-mail, the Internet and Pattee Library.

"They had computer workshops that really helped me, and I wouldn't have gotten that in the fall," Gittler said.

This is the third year the program has been offered and with each year, the number of students involved has doubled, said Ingrid Blood, associate dean for undergraduate education. During the first year there were about 90 participants, Blood said, and last year there were about 200. Blood anticipates about 400 students in the program this year.

This summer, LEAP will have nine different prides, each with a different focus. Some of these prides are the Business Information Management Pride, which offers Management Information Systems 297 and Speech Communication 100B (Effective Speech), and the Communications Pride, which offers Communications 100 (The Mass Media and Society) and English 015 (Rhetoric and Composition).

"This year we're offering more courses and more colleges are participating," Blood said.

Blood said the program is still young and is still open to change.

"This is still experimental," she said. "We have to ask questions like, 'Does having integrated courses make a difference? Does having a mentor help?' "