| | Friday, July 7, 2006
High school students preview college through AU, NSLC
BY matt getty
More than 300 high school students from across the country have flocked to campus this summer to study forensic science, government, justice, business, and diplomacy through AU’s growing partnership with the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC). Though NSLC uses several universities throughout the country as sites for its 12 programs, AU is the only one where faculty participate to offer the students the chance to earn college credit.
“It’s a great way for them to get a taste of college life,” said SIS professor Peter Howard, who teaches classes for several of the programs on campus.
According to Howard, AU’s participation in the program grew naturally from being a host institution seven years ago, to this summer, during which SIS, SPA, and SOC faculty have taught nearly a dozen courses to four different sections of students. “We just thought, these kids were here, they’re interested in subjects we have expertise in, why not teach them?” he said.
In addition to the speakers, trips, and other activities set up through NSLC, students choosing the college credit option take a compressed, one-week course from AU faculty to earn one to two credits. Students in the NSLC Entrepreneurship and Business program, for instance, took a public speaking course from SOC professor Sarah Menke-Fish while students in the Law and Advocacy program took a class on civil rights and the war on terror from SPA professor Debora Manifold.
“The classes are very intimate,” said Howard, noting that the students’ ages and the compressed schedule demand a more personal teaching style. “You have to talk with them; you can’t talk at them. It’s very student focused.”
After completing the classes and leaving campus, students participate in on-line discussions and receive further reading assignments through Blackboard before turning in a final project at the end of the summer.
The experience, said NSLC enrollment coordinator Nicole Casperson, offers high school sophomores and juniors a unique opportunity to explore their interests in a new way. “We really try to offer the students something that they haven’t been able to get in high school,” she said. “With programs like international diplomacy, U.S. policy and politics, and intelligence and national security, being at AU in the D.C. area gives them a rare opportunity to truly see these fields in action.”
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