Born in the Bronx and growing up with others not motivated to go to college, Tufts freshman Jessica Perez - a student with personal interest in higher education - represents one of a small group of students chosen to participate in the Urban Outreach Initiative (UOI).
When the program began in 1999, UOI, formerly known as Urban Outreach Recruitment, originally sought to recruit students of color to apply to Tufts. Since then, the program's purpose has shifted from recruitment to encouraging the pursuit of higher education. UOI endeavors to spark visiting students' interest in higher education, whether for Tufts or for other institutions. To participate in the program, students must be chosen by a school advisor or counselor, and must have a 2.8 GPA or higher, show interest in attending college, and be of Asian, African, Latino or Native American descent.
"The most important part of the program is exposing urban youth from under-served backgrounds to academic and student life at college," said junior Allison Kim Lord, one UOI's coordinators.
Students from a South Bronx high school will visit Tufts this coming weekend to attend classes, financial aid workshops, and cultural events, such as the Students of Color Outreach Program (SCOPE) show.
The UOI weekend also involves performing community service work at the Greater Boston food bank in Roxbury, to show the visitors "the importance of giving back to the community," Lord said.
The students will also attend a discussion panel with Tufts students and faculty. While students plan to discuss their particular experiences at Tufts, faculty members will relate their personal life experiences. The fact that faculty have met with hardships, but nevertheless became achieved scholars, serves as an example for students in similar situations, Lord said.
Despite low numbers in the past, recruitment for volunteers went well this year. "We have gotten a good response this semester, but usually we are in desperate need of men to volunteer," Lord said. Tufts volunteers will bring their guests to classes, sit on the discussion panel, and host students throughout the day and overnight.
Perez is the only student who came to Tufts after participating in UOI. She came as part of a group of students who maintained good grades and were interested in going to college. "We were hand chosen by one of the teachers in our school, who was the sister of one of the people running UOI at the time," Perez said.
But the school doesn't use this strict selection anymore. "It is not the same now as it was then. It seemed less formal and more like a bunch of kids hanging out on a campus asking a lot of questions," Perez said.
Not unlike the students coming this weekend, Perez hails from the Bronx, NY, and attended a small, alternative high school called the New School for Arts and Sciences. After seeing the campus, she held fast to her goal of attending Tufts, and had a positive experience overall during her stay.
"I knew that I wanted to come to Tufts from the moment we got out of the van until the moment I was accepted," Perez said. "It was great to be able to come up and see a real college campus."
The program hopes to stir an interest in higher education among high school students whose goals may not include attending college. "For kids like us, college is not something that we are expected to do," Perez said.
This overall objective to promote education does not stop with promoting Tufts. "The program is not so much concerned if the students are eventually accepted at Tufts," Lord said. "Although we do push for some students, we are more concerned that the students use what they learned from us to make better choices about their college education."
Toward the end of the program, students are asked to write an essay or poem about their visit to campus. UOI uses this feedback to evaluate the program. Minhua Lee, a past participant, wrote: "My experience at Tufts University with the Urban Outreach Initiative had far exceeded my expectations of college life. It has shown me a door to new opportunities and experiences that I would like to pursue in the future."
