What's Happening @ Princeton LGR

The first semester at Princeton has kicked off! Needless to say, with 100 kids from 9 schools enrolled and 40+ coaches to keep track of, the first few weeks were a little crazy. However, we've settled into a nice routine, and things are going GREAT! We hold the program on Sunday afternoons for 4 hours, dividing our time between math and reading/writing with college choice sessions interspersed ever other week or so. It's a long afternoon, but we provide food for the students (donated by the Princeton Eating Clubs), and we take a break in the middle, so it's not too bad.

It was hard at first to arrange to hold the program on Princeton's campus instead of on-site (getting funding for buses, arranging transportation, getting classrooms from the university, etc. were quite a headache.) However, now that it's all in place, things are working out nicely. I think it's a great that our students have to step outside their comfort zones to come to campus every week, and since we're holding the program in the student center, they get a glimpse of campus life. We'll be taking them on a tour of campus once the weather gets a little warmer.

One of the challenges of holding the program at Princeton is that the area is pretty affluent, and the areas of more concentrated need (like Trenton) are pretty far from campus. However, as we discovered, there is need at every high school, so we have a number of students from the Princeton high school, as well as students from high schools farther away (the Hamilton school district, Trenton, etc). Because these students have to commute at least a half hour to come, we only hold sessions once a week. However, quite of bit of commitment and dedication is necessary to make that commute, so most of the students we have are very dedicated. Attendance has waned a bit these last few weeks, but that has a lot to do with sickness (the flu and mono have been flying around) and sports (sections and states for winter sports are going on right now...)

For college choice, we've completed the myths and realities discussion, the admissions officer for a day activity, and the common app. We will be holding our college/scholarship search session at our individual sites on evenings during the week because there are no computer clusters on campus big enough to accomodate all of us. We'll be having our second diagnostic shortly after Princeton returns to school from spring break (though we're still trying to get a couple of our kids to take the FIRST....)

Best of luck with the rest of the semester!

--by Megan Jaye, Princeton LGR Site Director (mjaye@princeton.edu)