Less than two weeks into the Summer Bridge Program in June, Carla Ramirez could already see a difference coming fresh from high school to sitting at a desk on a college campus. “In high school, teachers didn’t encourage me to participate,” says Ramirez, 18, a graduate of West High School. “Even if I did, I didn’t feel like I had a voice. Here, I feel like I can talk to anyone.” Same goes for her close friend Anahi Padilla, 18, also a West grad. “Here I’m encouraged to speak up and have my own opinions,” she says. “I really like that about this program. It’s really engaging.”
Carla Ramirez
Anahi Padilla
That’s exactly what organizers of the annual Summer Bridge program hope happens with the more than 160 recent high school grads who will be Salt Lake Community College students this fall. The goal of Bridge on college campuses across the country is to orient historically underserved students – first-generation, racially marginalized, undocumented, LGBTQAI+ and low-income students – during that crucial transition to higher education. College faculty and peer mentors help them develop an on-campus network of resources and support with the goal of improving outcomes in areas like retention, success and graduation.
The lure of the program at SLCC for students coming from the Granite and Salt Lake City school districts begins with being offered a stipend for attending a few credit-bearing college courses during the eight weeks they spend at SLCC’s Taylorsville and South City campuses. Students also receive a much-needed free laptop computer and even a free lunch each day. But then they also undergo a comprehensive career assessment, talk to academic advisors, take part in workshops to develop “self-advocacy” skills and interact with 16 paid peer mentors, who have been down the same path on which the students are starting.
SLCC’s Bridge director Kino Hurtado says mentors take students directly to offices like Financial Aid, Career Services and the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs so that they will not exactly where to go for support services. “We don’t want to leave it to chance that they will use these offices,” Hurtado says. “At the end of summer, we want them to walk away having a better understanding of what it takes for them to be successful in college. I also want them to understand why a college degree matters.”
Martin Gassner, Linda Rodriguez and Marcus Morales, all current SLCC students, signed on to be paid peer mentors, in part, because they remember how hard it was when starting college on their own without much support or knowledge of how to navigate higher education. “When I was 17 or 18, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Gassner says. “I signed up for classes because I thought they were cool.”
The makeup of mentors is diverse with a purpose – so that students can see and feel comfortable talking with peers who share similar life experiences. “That’s very important,” says Morales. “And with this program, we’re not just giving them a single orientation day. We get to interact and see them progress. We have more of a chance to make an impact and get them to stay in college until completion.” Rodriguez says students see her as a friend, adding, “I like how they come up to me and talk about what’s going on. Once you get one student talking, they all start chiming in and they start coming out of their shells.”
Rukundo Emmanuel, Renée Jaime and Jordy Malmaceda all know each other from East High School – and “shells” are not an issue for these three, who readily and enthusiastically speak up during their classes. While the perks – the free laptops, lunches, earning college credits – drew them to apply for Bridge, the intangibles are what they zero in on when asked about the main takeaways.
“Everone is friendly – it’s like a family,” Emmanuel says. He’s interested in photography, maybe fashion design and starting his own business someday. Malmaceda likes the risk-free approach to dipping his toes in the higher education pool. “It’s a good opportunity to see if I like it or not,” he says. “I like the peer mentors – they’re cool, all of them. And the teachers are nice.”
Jaime admits she simply wanted something to do over the summer, to be able to sharpen her math skills and to get a jump on getting involved at college beyond just being a student. “The teachers care about you and want to teach you,” she says. “And with the peer mentors, I have someone to relate to, someone who has had the same struggles as me. If I have problems with language, I can talk to them in Spanish and learn more about things like scholarships for Latinx students.”
For more information about the Summer Bridge program at SLCC, click here.
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