Program To Draw Low-Income Students

In the latest of a series of partnerships between Harvard and local schools, the University announced today that it will open a free summer enrichment program for Boston and Cambridge high school students from low-income backgrounds.

The Crimson Summer Academy will begin this summer with 30 academically-talented students drawn from local public and parochial schools who will attend classes and participate in college advising for three consecutive summers.

Each student will receive a $3,000 scholarship upon completion of the program in addition to a $200 weekly stipend during the program to replace summer job earnings, Harvard officials said.

According to Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone, the program has been “many months” in the works and fits in with University President Lawrence H. Summers’ emphasis on education.

“Education is obviously a priority of President Summers,” Stone said. “This is a way to bring some of the great assets of Harvard to bear on significant issues in the area.”

Beginning in July, students will enroll in a four-week session in which they will take classes in writing, quantitative reasoning, science and art, focusing on the theme of citizenship.

Students will also participate in trips and workshops and hear guest speeches by Harvard faculty members.

The following summer the students will return for a six-week session.

In the third summer of the program, participants will take classes at Harvard Summer School and be eligible to receive college credit, while still remaining affiliated with the Crimson Summer Academy.

“I think it’s a wonderful way for Harvard to make a contribution to a really important public project, which is helping students who have the ability and the desire to move forward academically to do so,” said Maxine E. Rodburg, the director of the Harvard Writing Center, who will head up the new program.

According to Rodburg, the classes will be led by teachers from area schools, and she plans to teach the writing class herself.

The program will hire Harvard undergraduates to be paid teaching assistants during the summer and continue to work with the high school students as mentors during the school year.

“It is easy to take for granted the array of help and support that many of our students receive from their families, communities, and financially well-supported schools,” Summers said in a press release yesterday. “But not all students have these advantages. We are very excited about this opportunity to work with talented students from our local communities in an academically rigorous and culturally rich program.”

Ninth grade students from low-income backgrounds will be eligible to apply based on nominations from teachers, principals and guidance counselors. The admissions committee, including Harvard faculty members and the dean of the Summer School, will select students in April.

Rodburg said she hoped the program would allow students to broaden their horizons.

“This is not a feeder program for Harvard,” she said. “We’re hoping that students who go through this program might aim higher than they otherwise might have or see wider than they otherwise might have.”

The University previously hosted another program for low-income students for two summers beginning in 2000.

The Quest Scholars program, which was run out of Stanford University, hosted high school students from across the country.

When Harvard cancelled Quest Scholars in the fall of 2001, University administrators indicated they hoped to begin their own program at Harvard, but plans were put off due to a lack of housing.

The new Crimson Summer Academy will host only local students, circumventing a housing crunch.

During his tenure, Summers has touted a number of educational partnerships with local communities.

For the past three summers, over 400 Cambridge high school students enrolled in the Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy attended classes taught by student teachers from the Graduate School of Education.

“I certainly hope that we will not only renew but expand our commitment to the program,” Summers said last August.

In 2001, the University announced a $5 million commitment to after-school programs in Boston as part of the Boston Afterschool for All Partnership.

Cambridge Mayor Michael A. Sullivan said yesterday that he was glad the new summer academy would increase the opportunities for local children.

“They may be able to attend such institutions as Harvard or MIT both in their own backyard, or other institutions of higher learning,” he said. “We are very appreciative to the University as we continue our efforts to work together for what is a fundamental value for both the city and its community as well as Harvard and its community, in terms of ensuring education for all.”

—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.