About a month after graduating from the Healy-Murphy Center, 19-year-old Daniella Garcia was determined to finish her college enrollment. However, the longer she waited, the more daunting the task became. Garcia, a single mother, was one of about 30 high school graduates who participated in the San Antonio Independent School District Foundation’s Beat the Heat enrollment program, which aims to get students through the last hurdles of enrolling and attending college immediately after high school graduation.
Addressing the Summer Melt
The program seeks to address the ‘summer melt,’ a phenomenon where new graduating seniors get sidetracked or overwhelmed by the college enrollment process once they lose the support of an academic advisor. According to Andrew Cervantes, SAISD college alumni coordinator, the summer melt is not unique to SAISD, but it is a significant issue in San Antonio, where many students are the first in their family to attend college and may lack the knowledge and guidance at home.
The foundation hosted three Beat the Heat campus visits over the week to San Antonio College, St. Philip’s College, and Palo Alto College for 208 recent high school graduates. Once the students arrived on campus, SAISD Foundation facilitators were on site helping them access transcripts, fill out forms, and guiding them through the entire process.
At Palo Alto, officials were also ready to get these students enrolled and were holding their own Countdown to College enrollment campaign. Michael Ximenes, Palo Alto College director of academic advising, said they understand that one visit can make a difference in a student attending college immediately after graduation or even at all.
Records and transcripts tend to be some of the biggest hurdles once the students show up at their office, Ximenes said. But with this in mind, college officials have even made it a point to visit high schools before the end of the school year to get students as far into the process as possible to get ahead of the summer melt.
Overcoming Barriers
Jessica Estrada, 18, a graduate from Burbank High School, was among the students who had completed most of her enrollment during a Palo Alto College visit to her high school this spring. She had her classes selected, records and assessment results logged, but she needed to return to submit her Social Security Number to finish the financial aid application.
The barriers keeping students from completing their enrollment process might look different in other regions, Cervantes said. Here in San Antonio, it is common for many of their students to be the first in the family to attend college and they may lack that knowledge and guidance at home.
Roughly speaking, about 80 to 90% of their students fill out college applications, about 70 to 80% of their students get accepted, Cervantes said. However, historically SAISD’s college enrollment after graduation, for a graduating class, has been around 50%. The foundation’s program aims to bridge this gap by providing support and guidance to students during the summer months.
Original reporting: San Antonio Report — read the source article.
