ASU Student Services is implementing a new plan in the fall to help prospective ASU students in high school succeed. (Photo by Dominic Valente)The path to college is becoming increasingly competitive, but high school students and their parents can now receive some much-needed navigation as ASU introduces its Future Sun Devil Families program.
The program, which was piloted in the Tolleson Union High School District in spring 2013, consists of 10 weekly workshops per semester for students and their parents and covers everything from choosing and applying for colleges to establishing financial plans and career paths.
Beatriz Rendon, the associate vice president of education outreach and student services, said the program is meant to build a pipeline from high school to college by reaching into students’ educational careers early in high school so as to impact their level of college readiness.
“We intend to maintain consistent and regular communication and interaction with students from ninth grade forward so that they can have the required criteria to be admissible to ASU and so they can find a sense of place here at the University,” she said.
Tolleson Union High School District parent engagement coordinator Lupe Varela-Franco said the pilot program was a success at the district’s four high schools, where more than 200 students and their families participated.
“Anything that we can do to help parents in this day and age is critical and invaluable, because it is extremely important to have parents participating in their children’s education,” she said.
Varela-Franco said the majority of parents who participated in the pilot program were from Hispanic families, but that they came from different educational and financial backgrounds.
“The parents are seeing the big picture now, and they have an idea of where their child is in the whole process of getting to college,” she said. “They believe that they have learned immensely from this, and now they know what the University expects from their sons and daughters.”
Alan Livingstone, a parent at Sierra Linda High School, participated in the program with his 10th grade son, Xylaan, and said he found the program surprisingly informative.
Livingstone said he thought most of the participants, including himself, would not attend all 10 weeks of the program.
“But we went every Wednesday and in the end, it gave us a great opportunity to get information directly from ASU people who know what my son needs to do to get in,” he said. “It was definitely worth it for us.”
Amy Orosz participated in the program at Westwood High School with her 11th grade daughter, Elly, and said she found the program not only very informative and impressive, but also very fun.
“The program was great; it was never boring and always action-packed with something to do,” she said. “It helped the kids think about how to direct their lives and how to translate their interests into a college education.”
Orosz said the program helped her become engaged with the academic community at Westwood and even allowed her to build a rapport with the high school principal.
She said her daughter learned how to make attending a university an achievable goal, while also grasping how much work college can be.
“The instructor let the kids know how demanding of their time it would be and didn’t sugarcoat anything,” she said. “That was a real eye-opener for them and a good reality check for my daughter to get her mentally prepared for what is coming.”
When the program launches this fall, ASU plans to have around 850 students and their families enrolled in high schools in the following districts: Phoenix High School, Mesa Public Schools, Glendale Union High School, Tempe Union High School, Tolleson Union High School and ASU Preparatory Academies.
Rendon said these districts were chosen because they have higher poverty situations and, though the program is free to anyone interested, it is aimed at students who traditionally have not found their way to the University.
“Future Sun Devil Families is a program that will not only provide college prep info to students, but it will also provide it to their families so they can help serve as advocates and support to ensure these students get to a four-year university,” she said. “Ours, ideally.”
Reach the reporter at npmendo@asu.edu or follow him @NPMendoza
