By George Mauzy,
Communications and Marketing
Last week, Ohio University hosted about 40 high school students as part of Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) of Columbus' Summer Institute. The program is designed to give students the necessary skills to complete high school, while providing them with an academically enriched residential experience. It also attempts to encourage talented, but low-achieving students to obtain a college degree.
Daily activities in the two-week residential program include seminars, research projects, leadership training, study groups, exercise time and a variety of extracurricular activities.
Project GRAD of Columbus, which has more than 5,500 participants, hopes to improve the participants' standardized test scores, high school and college graduation rates and retention and attendance rates, while decreasing their disciplinary referrals.
"This is a great opportunity for these inner-city students to experience Ohio University, probably for the first time," said Special Assistant to the President Erek Perry. "Project GRAD is a great program that is not only preparing students for college, but also working to increase diversity in higher education. Since Ohio University is extremely committed to improving its diversity, a partnership with Project GRAD is a natural fit."
