Sampling College in Summer Program

What happens if I do this? Or this? Or that?

Soon enough — to quote a famously misunderstood doctor — his creation is … alive!

“My wonderful baby boy!” Moyer shouts, arms firing like pistons into the air. “He just moves on!”

Such moments of self-discovery are at the heart of Summer for Success, the Leesburg, Florida school’s three-week college immersion experience for college-bound high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who learn differently. The program helps students develop scholastic and life skills, forge friendships, build confidence, and equip them to make the successful leap to college.

“Lightbulb moments are incredibly rewarding as an educator,” Maldonado says. “These moments often lead to increased confidence and motivation, as students realize their potential to overcome obstacles and succeed. It is these breakthroughs that make teaching such a fulfilling profession, as they highlight the impact of a supportive and engaging learning environment.”

Supporting the transition

In recent years, more colleges and universities across the country have trotted out summer enrichment and college transition programs to serve neurodivergent students with a hankering for college.

Back in 2016, Beacon launched its Summer for Success with 35 students. Since then, the college’s transformational and influential program has continued to grow and evolve.

“The world of learning differences is ever growing, changing and becoming more complex,” says Brody Glidden, director of summer programming at Beacon College. “No two students with learning differences are the same, and we need to account for the ways they can learn and grow in risk-free environments.

Even as other colleges enter the summer enrichment space, Glidden says the college’s approach continues to set apart a program from which 65 percent of attendees ultimately apply for enrollment at Beacon.

“We are family-centered in all that we do, which is not necessarily what other pre-college programs are about,” he says. “If we can get the buy-in and provide transparent feedback and recommendations to the student and families, the students have support from all angles.”

This year, 145 high schoolers signed up to tackle 28 college-level courses with fun monikers such as “Creative Writing through Dungeons & Dragons,” “Artificial Intelligence: Today & Tomorrow,” “Math at the Movies – Let’s Go to Mars!”

Courses designed to build a road to self-discovery and burnish communication, adaptability, decision-making, confidence and other soft skills that students need to succeed in college and in the workplace.

Lessons for life

In another course, Moyer says he faced delivering a presentation — an activity that spotlights his weakness with public speaking. So, Moyer flexed his problem-solving muscles, building a strength.

“I was just trying to think about what I could do better, and that’s basically eye contact,” he says. “And so, I forced myself to learn what was on my slides so I could speak better, because sometimes speaking is really hard.”

Similar lessons were found in unexpected places.

Test-driving discovery

For Welt, inspiring such exploration is the showstopper.

“It is always exciting to see students excel on their own merits and desire to do their best,” said Welt, an assistant humanities professor, with a specialty in dance choreography and performance. “I believe it is through a safe, yet challenging atmosphere that pushes students to either try something they have never done before, or decide they are going to problem-solve using the tools you have given them.”

Back in the math lab, Dr. Frankenstein, er, Moyer, tests his now crawling baby boy on the floor.

The journey was pitted with potholes. But the payoff — priceless.

“I’ve done coding a lot in the past and there’s always a lot of trouble trying to make something work,” Moyer said. “You’ always feel that nag — I might not get it, I might not solve it — but once you do get it, it’s amazing.”