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Pomona College Reaches Out to Local Schools
By Travis Kaya '10
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Students and a professor from the 2009 Pomona
Academy for Youth Success program |
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For the Pomona College community, education doesn't end at the school’s gates. On campuses and in classrooms across Southern California, Pomona students, faculty and staff have made a difference through educational outreach programs that have enriched the lives of thousands of local youth.
Pomona’s Draper Center for Community Partnerships has been at the center of those outreach efforts. Led by Director Maria Tucker,
Program Manager Sergio Marín, and a student staff, the center deploys student volunteers to service projects across Southern California. In recent years, the center has been especially active in fostering community partnerships that allow Sagehens to interact with younger students.
“The College is ideally situated to help enhance student learning,
instruction and research in surrounding communities,” Tucker said. “And
an important piece of that is working through a collaborative program
by creating partnerships with local communities, schools and organizations.”
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New Name, New Mission
The Draper Center for Community
Partnerships was formerly known as the Office of Community
Multicultural Programs. The Center is now the centerpiece of a new initiative to enhance student learning, faculty teaching and research at Pomona, as well as the quality of life in surrounding communities, through an integrated and collaborative program of community partnerships.
The Center will bring together numerous existing programs that connect Pomona College with local communities and
create new ones.
The Draper Center is made possible thanks to a significant gift from alumnus Ranney Draper, his wife, Priscilla Draper, and the Draper Family Foundation. For
more information,
click here. |
Working with the Pomona Unified School District, the Draper Center has had great success with its Pomona Partners program for local middle school
students. Now in its 10th year, the weekly after-school program pairs Fremont Middle School students with college volunteers who develop their own curriculum tailored to their intellectual interests. Every week, Pomona sends about 10 volunteers to tutor an average of 25 to 35 students on a range of subjects. Student volunteer coordinators also facilitate weekly sessions and activities, including campus visits and a mock majors fair. The program not only aims to provide academic enrichment, but also helps build a rapport between students and volunteers in order to keep students engaged.
“The level of interaction between the volunteers and the students, and the dedication put forth by the coordinators to plan out an activity each week definitely helped encourage my participation,” said Bryan Coreas ’11,
who was a student volunteer coordinator during the 2008-09 school year. “I really had not expected such an enthusiastic group of kids.
It seemed as if the volunteers gained energy from them and vice versa.”
Now an active Pomona Partners volunteer, Coreas says he may not have even applied to Pomona College if not for
another Draper educational outreach program, the Pomona Academy for Youth Success (PAYS) program. Coreas was accepted into PAYS, known formerly as the Summer Scholars Enrichment Program, when he was a freshman at Bassett High School in the nearby city of La Puente. He participated in the program for three years before deciding to apply to Pomona.
“I always knew that I would go to college, but it was never really clear where or how to get there,” Coreas said. “In a way, the program gave me more certainty in the steps I had taken, and in the steps that I would take as I continued on this path to college.”
 PAYS is an annual summer program that provides guidance to college-bound high school students from Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire.
Selected students are invited to Pomona for four weeks during the summer to participate in a comprehensive academic curriculum. Working with 15 college-aged teaching assistants, students attend math and critical inquiry courses as well as a variety of elective courses.
“[PAYS] helped guide me through the whole college processes, from types of colleges and SATs, to interviews, until that day in April when you finally receive the ‘big envelope’ in the mail,” Coreas said.
As it enters its seventh year, the program has already been a resounding success. PAYS has a near perfect record in getting its alumni into college, sending many to the most elite universities and liberal arts colleges in the nation.
“We select students who are preparing to be candidates at highly selective schools,” Tucker said. “We
support them so that they’ll continue to prepare and make themselves eligible.”
 The Draper Center considers its partnerships with local schools central to PAYS’ success. Program coordinators work with high school counselors and administrators to ensure that the best and brightest students have access to the program, and invite high school teachers to participate in the month-long summer session.
Another program the Draper Center supports is America Reads, which sends Pomona
students to Claremont elementary schools to tutor students in grades one through
four. Tutors arrive at the school during reading time, toting books available
from the Draper library. Tucker says the students often form bonds with their
tutors, and that the program is a "gateway" for
volunteerism on
campus. Many students who start with America Reads go on to other community
service opportunities.
During the year, a number of student- and faculty-run programs also work to build connections between Pomona College and local schools.
The Pomona Department of Theatre and Dance teamed up with the Pomona Unified School District to create a
theature conference for students from several schools, including Fremont Middle School
and Garey High School. During its presentation of
Zoot Suit in early 2009, more than 300 students attended a special viewing of the play followed by breakout sessions with the actors to discuss themes of race and identity.
Another theatrical outreach program is Theatre for Young Audiences, run by Rose Portillo ‘75 and now in its third year. Each fall
and spring semester, theatre students who take the Theatre for Young Audiences
classes team up with students from Fremont Middle
School to learn about theatre and to produce a show at the Seaver Theatre
Complex. Last year, students adapted Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to
reflect both students' experiences and the themes of the play, with a particular
focus on prejudice and bias. The College students and junior high students meet
together twice each week, once at Pomona and once at Fremont.
Student-run organizations have also been active in fostering relationships between the
College and local schools. With the cooperation of principals and teachers at two Claremont schools, the Partnership for Advanced Learning in Science (PALS) sends volunteers from the Claremont Colleges into classrooms to supplement science education. In an effort to bring students up to new California science education standards, volunteers introduce new concepts with fun activities meant to engage students in the material.
“By helping teachers develop engaging and relevant lessons, we're making sure that science doesn't get pushed aside in the daily curriculum,” said PALS President James Koved ’10. “I would hope that our science lessons inspire at least a few students to continue on in the field and for all of them to use these scientific skills in their lives.”
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