Growing up in South Los Angeles, fourth-year Chicana/o studies student Maria Olivares never thought UCLA’s Westwood campus was the right place for her.
“When I got accepted … I thought it was a fluke, since I went to a high school where few students went on to higher education,” Olivares said.
But all of this changed when she arrived the summer before her first year to participate in the Freshman Summer Program, a six-week summer enrichment program for underrepresented students put on by the Academic Advancement Program.
This year’s program started last week, and 300 incoming students will be living in a residence hall and taking summer session classes.
“Everything was so much more accessible to me because of (the program) … I had so many tutors and counselors available to help me adjust,” Olivares said.
Fourth-year geography student Brandon Walker also found academic and social support through his experience in the program.
“We had intimate classes with lots of close faculty interaction, so it was easy for us to get up there and just talk about our opinions,” Walker said. He added that the open environment helped him figure out his academic interests at an early stage in his college career.
Both Olivares and Walker now work in the AAP office and assist administrators and faculty in the program.
Jeff Cooper, the director of AAP summer programs, said the program was created to meet the needs of students from low-income, racially underrepresented or first generation families.
“These students don’t have the same access to resources that students from Beverly Hills or Pasadena do ““ there hasn’t been a level playing field,” Cooper said.
He added that 70 percent of students who participate have an estimated family contribution to their education of under $2,000.
Cooper added that the program brings together all of the underrepresented students and shows them that there are other people like themselves with similar life experiences.
Rosanne Lopez, the program’s residence hall coordinator, said she has seen students change tremendously throughout the program.
“These students come in feeling not smart enough, like they don’t belong at a prestigious university, and they leave with such confidence and end up blossoming in the fall,” Lopez said.
If the program was not there with its full-time support from counselors and staff, some of the students would have fallen through the cracks, Lopez said.
“The resources of AAP are a treasure chest ““ we bring it to (the students), and they find what they like from it,” she said.
Alongside the freshmen are 160 transfers who attend the Transfer Summer Program, which Cooper said is a nearly identical program.
“As a nontraditional student and a transfer, I would have easily been lost here without (the program) last year,” said fourth-year political science student Michael Oropeza.
“(It) got me comfortable with the school and created a network of friends for me ““ it was like a big family,” Oropeza added.
The academic curriculum for both programs is intensive and only open to their participants, Cooper said.
“The students are basically in class from 8:30 (a.m.) to well into the afternoon, taking 10 writing intensive units for six weeks,” Cooper said.
He added that the curriculum is geared toward the needs of aspirations of the participants and speaks directly to the students.
“For example, our version of (Political Science) 40 is about race, citizenship and class, where we have specially selected tutors who break the students into small discussion sections,” he said.
Cooper said the participants cover the cost of attendance, with a significant number receiving financial aid.
“They’re paying what anybody else is paying for summer session classes, though I handle the university housing contracts directly,” he said.
Yesenia Rayos, an undeclared first year student who is attending this year’s freshman program, said AAP made a special effort to recruit students.
“I heard about (the program) at AAP scholar’s day, where they gave a presentation and told us financial aid covered most of the (housing) costs and that it was a first come, first served program,” Rayos said.
From that presentation, Rayos said she decided to enroll at UCLA and participate in the program.
“I doubted I could make it into UCLA, but now I’m about to start,” she said.
Rayos said she hoped to have a strong bond with friends she makes during her time here.
“I’m a little nervous right now, because I don’t know what to expect or how people are going to be, but other than that, I’m just glad to be (coming) here,” she said.