By Bill Roberts, Penn State Parents Council
When my son was accepted to Penn State University Park, I was truly excited for him. After things settled down, I asked him if he would be interested in attending a summer session. As an alumnus of the University, I spent two years at a commonwealth campus and two final years at University Park. Abington Campus was small and very easy to navigate. At that time, it was a commuter campus. My transition to University Park was a challenge.
Getting back to the question of my son, I became aware of a program Penn State was offering -the Learning Edge Academic Program (LEAP) for incoming first-year students accepted to the University. I asked him if he was interested in attending. His initial answer was no that he didn’t want to give up his final summer before college. I explained that this was an opportunity to get a jump on a couple of classes with the excellent chance of starting with a strong GPA. I gave him some time to think about it.
He eventually decided to go but his delay caused him not to get into the LEAP pride that he wanted. The University has a number of LEAP prides that are tied to the various academic colleges. Since my son was going to be a biology major, the pride he wanted was already full. This wasn’t a problem as the coursework tied to the prides help fulfill general education requirements. He selected the Communication Pride. (This was in the summer of 2013 and the names of the prides have changed.)
When it came time to leave for LEAP, my son wanted to travel to University Park himself (he was able to obtain parking which was permitted at the time for first-year students attending a summer session). He found that check-in and getting acclimated was a breeze. After moving into his dorm room, his LEAP mentor had a number of welcome events for the pride. I forgot to mention that each pride had about 20 students.
He had a great summer – trips to the pool, hiking to Mount Nittany, movie/game nights, and more. Looking back, I found the following very beneficial:
- He knew how to navigate the campus as well as the library;
- He gained confidence in this for the next step in his life;
- He made numerous friends;
- And, what I thought was great – Housing allowed him to move a number of his belongings into his new room in East. This made our trip for move-in day in August much easier.
My son’s LEAP experience was so positive that he decided to be a LEAP mentor the following summer.
Keep in mind LEAP may not be for every student. My daughter, who is now entering her third year, wanted no part of giving up her summer. So, LEAP wasn’t in her plans.
If your student is participating in LEAP, there is a wealth of information and videos on the Penn State LEAP website, so I encourage that you and your student check it out!
Photo caption: Bill and his son
The Parent-to-Parent Blog is written by members of the Penn State Parents Council who are dedicated to enhancing communication about the Penn State family experience. Opinions and experiences expressed in the blog are those of the writer(s). The blog is a partnership with the Penn State Parents Program.
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