Nancy Herrera ’15 and Mercedes Adame ’18 know intimately how 61传媒 Academy (SCA) helps students achieve seemingly impossible goals. As high school students, the program realized the power of a liberal arts education. As 61传媒students and employees of the Academy, they help others follow in their footsteps.
Adame wasn’t sure she’d attend college before enrolling in SCA. The two-week residential program, however, inspired her to establish goals for the future and motivated her to pursue higher education and new academic interests.
“SCA hosted tons of field trips and programs,” she says. “I was exposed to labwork on a field trip and joined the Math and Science Scholars (MASS) program. Now, thanks to research performed at the [W.M] Keck Science Department, I’m thinking about becoming a science major and am enrolled in integrated biology and chemistry.”
Herrera also says the program changed her life.
“Spending the summer at 61传媒introduced me to the possibilities of a liberal arts education and encouraged me to strive for more,” she says. “I never considered going to a private college before.
“Our college counselors didn’t motivate us to apply to liberal arts schools, since many kids in my high school don’t go to college at all. With the help of SCA mentors, I was able to get advising on my applications, raise my GPA, and be accepted at my dream school.”
In her three years at Scripps, Herrera left an indelible mark on SCA. As a sophomore, she tutored students from local middle and high schools in economics, writing, math, and science. In addition to tutoring, she helped coordinate MASS, composed the program’s first evaluative report during her junior year, and organized an Academy scholar event between alumnae and current scholars this past summer. Herrera currently mentors high school seniors as they apply to universities and scholarship programs.
In her first semester on campus, Adame already excels as a mentor. Her favorite aspects of the job include helping participants reflect on who they are in their personal statements and coaching many through QuestBridge scholarship applications.
“I never realized how busy my own mentor was until I took this job,” she says. “We put a lot of heart and soul in helping seniors research schools, develop strong applications, and achieve their goals. It requires a lot of dedication, but I remember being in their shoes. It pays off to see my mentees getting on the right track.”
Roberto Escobar, the program’s director, says the senior mentor program is one of most important elements of the Academy.
“The college application process is a difficult and scary one,” he notes. “But we give our scholars one-on-one help at a point where they could easily be discouraged or lost in the shuffle. As a first generation student myself, I know the resources and time our mentors provide makes all the difference.”
61传媒 Academy is an intensive, multi-year, pre-college program for high achieving young women who wish to become the first-generation in their families to attend college. Through a rigorous summer residential experience followed by monthly programming, SCA Scholars prepare to become confident and successful college students. SCA also provides free academic tutoring to local middle and high school students. To learn more about the program, click .