Summer for Success Chronicles

Summer for Success is Beacon College’s three-week college immersion program for rising high school juniors and seniors who learn differently. With Summer for Success, students from across the United States and abroad live and learn together in this focused — and fun — summer experience.

Real-world Learning

| Summer For Success
Summer Students Learning

Summer for Success students continued their scholastic explorations in Week Two.

Summer for Success staffer Kelly Mouriz welcomed a familiar face Tuesday to her Human Behavior class: her husband.

Dr. Javier Mouriz, a licensed psychologist, touched on several topics including his 26-year career as a psychologist for The Bureau of Prisons.

Let’s Get it Started!

| Summer For Success
Summer Students In Class

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
— Lao Tzu

And so began the 2018 Summer for Success program, Beacon College’s three-week summer college immersion program for students who learn differently.

With single steps, 58 students from 17 states and Puerto Rico and from Germany began their journeys of exploration, introspection, and evolution, testing — sometimes for the first time — independence, responsibility, and agency.

The End of the Road

| Featured, Summer For Success
Hagerty and Graduate

As teenagers streamed into the Leesburg Boat Club, it was tough for heads not to spin as if on a swivel considering the chocolate fountain, trays of cookies, and other yummies that adorned the banquet spread. Yet, despite the array of sugary treats, Thursday night was bittersweet. It was the last night for students attending […]

Lights. Camera. Action!

| Summer For Success
Video Students

In the week that the Zombie King, George A. Romero, exited this earthly realm, Matthew Cupach resurrected the horror vibe in his video class.

The course is one of the electives rounding out the rigorous curriculum featured in the Summer for Success program, the three-week summer college-immersion program at Beacon College, the first college or university accredited to award bachelor’s degrees primarily to students who learn differently.

Puzzled!

| Summer For Success
Students Puzzle

Staiger, career instructor at Beacon College, played team whisperer to students in her learning essentials course, among the rigorous courses Beacon College’s summer immersion college experience for high schoolers, Summer for Success, where students receive a taste of a college and some beefy tools for managing learning differences they can use to succeed while still in high school.

The Dark (Jenga) Tower

| Summer For Success
Puzzle Blocks

Like the mythical Atlas, Cameron Frisch suddenly had the weight of the world on her shoulders. At least the weight of possibly choosing the wrong piece to pluck and sending the imposing Jenga tower before her tumbling to the classroom floor. How did the Hermosa Beach, Calif. teenager find herself in this predicament? Just another day in “Research Skills Needed for College,” one of a raft of courses meant to introduce college skills and rigor to students enrolled in Summer for Success, the three-week summer college-immersion program for high schoolers developed at Beacon College in Leesburg, Fla.

Wild Kingdom!

| Summer For Success
Girl Meets Pigeon

During “Animal Science,” one of the rigorous college-level courses high schoolers study in the Summer for Success program, Cushing, an instructor in the anthropology program at Beacon College who is teaching the course, was asked to leave the room. The Animal Science class Cushing teaches allows students to explore careers with animals, learn how to care for animals, and sample different types of science used in animal facilities. Today’s lesson: introducing a fundamental of animal training, stationing — conditioning the animal to go to or stay put on a specific spot.

Crossing the Finish Line…

| Summer For Success, Uncategorized

The adage tells us that all good things must end. Yet for the 30-plus students who gathered Thursday night at the Leesburg Marina, the culmination of Beacon College’s 2016 Summer for Success program seemed more like a new beginning. Students with learning differences came from across the country and Ecuador who wondered whether they could […]

EZ Does It

| Summer For Success, Uncategorized

If, as artist Barbara Kruger argued, “our culture is saturated with irony whether we know it or not,” Michele Patestides’ “Healthy Ways to Manage Stress Class” was awash in irony. While reviewing previous lessons Tuesday, her half-dozen Summer for Success students dutifully and thoughtfully answered questions. Yet, their hearts and minds were locked on a […]

Water World

| Summer For Success, Uncategorized

Tourism may be the heartbeat of Florida, but clean freshwater is the state’s lifeblood. When millions of thirsty Central Floridians and visitors around the Sunshine State crave an antidote for the sizzling summer sun, they often turn to a tall, cool glass of aqua from down under. Not Australia, but rather aquifers. These are “vast […]