Increasing access to college, regardless of background or income, has been a goal of educational leaders in the United States for more than sixty years (President’s Commission on Higher Education, 1947; Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 2006). Educational officials have aggressively sought to expand access to postsecondary education for under-represented populations, including low-income and minority students.

Despite a significant investment of federal dollars, this goal remains largely unfulfilled. The gap between the college enrollment of low- and high-income students stands at 30 percentage points—essentially the same as it was in the 1960s when the Higher Education Act was enacted (Perna, 2002).

Olsen’s (2009) Mentor article identifies challenges faced by first-generation college students, especially those from low-income and minority backgrounds. These challenges include less academic preparation; information about the college experience; likelihood to have assistance from parents; help at school with the application process; awareness of the steps necessary to prepare for higher education, including finance and admissions procedures; as well as knowledge about connecting career goals and course requirements. Olsen (2009) advocates the Appreciative Advising model at the college level as a foundation for successfully advising such students. Bloom, Hutson, and He (2008) list the elements of Appreciative Advising as Disarm, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Don’t Settle. This Appreciative Advising model focuses on the dyadic advisee-adviser relationship and emphasizes advising students after they are enrolled in college. We propose that the Appreciative Advising model applies equally well to advising high school students about their postgraduate aspirations.

Many of the same challenges discussed by Olson (2009) are faced by potential first-generation college students while they are in high school. Low-income and minority students are less likely to know how to apply or even to develop college aspirations. Examining the challenges in helping these students transition to postsecondary education revealed that a serious problem was the lack of individualized advising.

Unfortunately, many schools lack adequate numbers of counselors and may use classroom teachers untrained in counseling or advising to fill the counselor roles. These classroom teachers often lack current information about the college admission process and financial aid. Given the economic climate, funding for additional counselors and advisers is not forthcoming. At the inception of our efforts, parents, teachers, and school administrators had little expectation that the majority of these low-income minority students would complete a college preparatory curriculum or attend college. In the absence of adequate individual advising, we intervened at a systemic level to create a college-going culture in middle and high schools. A college-going culture is one that creates and supports the postsecondary aspirations of all students, particularly those whose parents did not attend college. Necessity and efficiency dictated that most of this work occur with groups rather than through individual advising. Creating a college-going culture in low-income schools offers potential first-generation college students some of the support that many middle-class students experience.

However, the challenges identified by Olson (2009) must still be met. Many of the Appreciative Advising elements noted as efficacious in dyadic advising appear in an experiential fashion with groups in the multipronged systemic approach implemented in Louisiana as part of the state’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (LA GEAR UP) project. The approach involved coordinating a number of grants to fund and create a college-going culture in low-income high schools and to provide teachers and counselors with the information needed to scaffold (Vygotsky, 1978) students and parents. This information regarded the academic preparation, college application, financial aid, and transition processes. The focus was on changing attitudes and expectations about the viability of college acceptance, attendance, and persistence to degree. The intervention began with students in junior high school and followed them through high school.

With support from LA GEAR UP and the Louisiana Board of Regents, a five-component multipronged systemic approach was created to promote a college-going culture in schools serving low-income and minority students. The five components of the model interconnect to create a web of support for high-risk and first-generation potential college-going students. The programmatic structure of this multipronged approach, termed Summer/Academic-Year Learning Projects (SAYLP), consists of:

1. Summer Learning Camps
2. Academic-Year Explorers Clubs
3. The Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS)
4. Summer Professional Development Workshops
5. A Peer Mentoring Project

These components constitute the SAYLP system that seeks to create a college-going-culture in participating schools.

The principal component of SAYLP is one-week residential summer learning camps on Louisiana university campuses. A second component is summer professional development for teachers and school guidance counselors. A third component is initiated when, upon completion of this professional development, the teachers/counselors return to school to direct Academic-Year Explorers Clubs. Explorers Clubs are school clubs designed to continue and supplement the student learning that occurs in Summer Learning Camps through the academic year. Club activities promote student educational and career aspirations. A fourth component, mentoring, involves college students (some of whom served as counselors during the summer learning camps), who build upon the relationships they established with campers by serving as mentors during the academic year. The fifth component is the integration of the American College Testing (ACT) Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) tests into all elements of the model. Each of these five components and its respective relationship to the Appreciative Advising model is discussed below.

Summer Learning Camps

Summer Learning Camps (SLCs) introduce students to the academic and leadership skills needed to succeed in postsecondary education. The SLCs:

1. Provide stimulating learning opportunities in mathematics, science, technology, and/or English/language arts
2. Develop and promote career and educational aspirations along with leadership skills
3. Help students develop an early awareness of the need to plan for college both academically and financially
4. Combine learning and fun.

Enrollment in SLCs increased from 473 students in 2003 to more than 1,200 in 2007 (Louisiana Board of Regents, 2010) and subsequent years. More than 7,300 new and returning students attending one of more than 75 Louisiana schools have attended an SLC since 2003. Approximately 20–25 summer sessions are offered at host university sites each summer.

These Summer Learning Camps experientially express the processes that occur in Appreciative Advising (Bloom, Hutson, & He, 2008). For example, during the Disarm phase of Appreciative Advising, advisers help to make the student feel comfortable. Prior to SLCs, potential first-generation students often view college and campuses as rarefied and sometimes scary. During the SLCs, when students visit the campuses, college becomes a reality. Student campers begin to see college students as people like themselves, familiarize themselves with the campus, and view college as something less threatening and more attainable. The student’s residential college experience helps to address Olsen’s (2009) challenge of less information about the experience. At each camp, the students are tested academically and tutoring is provided to meet the challenge of less academic preparation. Students are given information about the college application process, financial aid, and admissions procedures, thus addressing the majority of Olsen’s (2009) challenges for first-generation college students.

Academic Year Explorers Club

Clearly, summer learning camps alone would not provide adequate support to sustain these students and their aspirations. Additional funding was sought to provide students with support during the academic year to reinforce their efforts and provide a venue for students to exercise the leadership skills acquired during camp. Students who participate in SLCs are eligible for membership in Explorers Clubs established in all LA GEAR UP schools. The intent was to make these clubs the catalyst for the creation of a college-going culture and to provide a peer support group for students with college aspirations. Explorers Club members have a dual responsibility. First, as a club member, students are expected to create and follow a personal action plan addressing the following domains:

1. Academics
2. Behavior/leadership
3. College preparation and career exploration
4. Service to school and community

These domains are collectively referred to as the ABCs. Second, club members encourage and support the postsecondary aspirations of other LA GEAR UP students. Funding is provided for clubs to engage in activities that provide college information, including college tours and College Connection nights for students and parents. Club activities are intended to promote school-wide initiatives aligned with the school improvement plan and the goals of LA GEAR UP. Activities include peer tutoring, school improvement and clean-up projects, service learning projects, and other activities developed by club members. Student officers and club sponsors present results of Explorers Club activities at an annual state conference.

Explorers clubs and annual conferences also further experientially reflect aspects of the Appreciative Advisory process. In the Discover phase of appreciative advising, students talk about adversities, triumphs, and successes (Olson, 2009). At the annual Explorers Club Conference, each club presents its challenges and accomplishments during the past year. Individual students make PowerPoint presentations introducing themselves to the group and expressing their post-high school goals and aspirations. Club membership provides students with peer support as they make their way through middle and high school and on to college. Additionally, club members are encouraged to inspire postsecondary aspirations in other students who did not attend camp.

The Dream phase of Appreciative Advising is reflected in both the SLCs and Explorers Clubs. Students are encouraged to dream about careers, majors, and colleges. College and career aspirations are identified and encouraged. Students take ownership of their dreams by developing personal action plans. Hands-on science activities at SLCs are designed to help students begin to see themselves as future scientists and engineers. In the spirit of Buyarski (2008), students make footprints under which they express the legacy they wish to leave behind at their school. Campers participate in leadership training to prepare them to serve effectively as club members.

For these first-generation students the Design phase of Appreciative Advising is perhaps most important. Most students lack information they need to make their dreams a reality. It is here that the other prongs come into play in a more traditional advisory context. To maximally impact the most students, high school teachers and counselors (most of whom are Explorers Club advisers) are trained to facilitate college and career planning, academic preparation, and student application for colleges and financial assistance. These activities are offered through LA GEAR UP-supported teacher adviser periods during the school day.

Educational Planning and Assessment System

Professional development workshops are held for counselors and teachers providing them with information about using Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) results in curriculum planning, remediation of academic difficulties in individual students, and advising. To better prepare Louisiana students for the ACT, the Louisiana Board of Regents provides all Louisiana schools access to EPAS testing, which consists of two pre-ACT tests. These tests include the Explore Test, which is administered to all eighth-grade students, and the Plan Test, which is administered to all tenth-grade students. These tests are used as predictors for student scores on the ACT College Admissions Test, used by Louisiana colleges and universities in setting admission standards. These tests are also predictors of scores on the state criterion-referenced high stakes tests at the eighth grade and on the high school exit exams. For these reasons LA GEAR UP integrates EPAS as critical elements into Summer/Academic-Year Learning Projects. EPAS tests provide important benchmarks indicating whether students are making adequate academic progress for college admission and work.

These EPAS-trained counselors and teachers become better equipped to keep students on track with academic preparation and to translate student test scores into curriculum design. They inform students how academic achievements in early years lead to college and career success. Thus, students are assisted in translating their EPAS scores into concrete short- and long-term academic goals and are provided the tools to achieve these goals. This supports the Design phase of Appreciative Advising.

Summer Professional Development Workshops

Additional summer professional development workshops for guidance counselors and/or LA GEAR UP coordinators provide further instruction about using EPAS data to advise students in planning their postsecondary education. Thus, critical elements of Appreciative Advising in the Design phase are supported. The information supplements the EPAS workshops and provides information for those who did not participate in those workshops.

The Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) participants also receive information regarding:

1. The Louisiana Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS)
2. Rewards for Success scholarships
3. Other financial assistance available to students in LA GEAR UP schools.

Action plans are developed with strategies for disseminating information to all LA GEAR UP school students through College Connection nights sponsored by the Explorers Clubs. Special attention is placed on continuing education related to TOPS and Rewards for Success requirements to ensure that LA GEAR UP students are informed of these scholarship requirements. These PDW participants are informed about student Summer Learning Camp activities and are given Explorer Clubs activities to support the camp experience during the school year. They receive a stipend for successful club advising and spring conference participation by their students. The PDW provides encouragement and support for teachers and counselors who will in turn provide encouragement and support to students during the school year.

Mentoring

College students are trained and hired to work as counselors during the Summer Learning Camps. Although relationships between campers and these counselors tend to last beyond the summer through electronic communications and letter-writing, it became clear that a more systematic way to foster and monitor mentoring relationships was needed.

Consequently, the university Student Government Association (SGA) began recruiting college students to serve as mentors to eighth-grade students in local schools. Like LA GEAR UP, these mentors begin work with eighth-grade students and remain with them through high school graduation. The mentoring activities occur during the academic year. The SGA mentoring program and the Summer/Academic-Year Learning Projects merged, providing an opportunity for LA GEAR UP students to benefit from a college student mentor throughout the academic year and extend the Summer Learning Camp Experience through the academic year.

Mentors serve to provide support to both the Design and the Deliver phases of Appreciative Advising. Mentors reassure the student that they can achieve their goals and provide support and advice to students as needed.

Conclusion

While not originally conceptualized in terms of Appreciative Advising, this five-pronged systemic intervention supports its elements. Given the economic climate, it is likely that the availability of individual advisers/counselors for individual students will become even more limited. Because one-on-one advising may become more limited, the development of systems approaches to facilitate and encourage the postgraduate aspirations of potential first-generation college students will become increasingly important. The use of a systems approach in order to create a college-going culture is worthwhile and can be achieved by creatively coordinating resources from different sources. The approach described here is a model of one such attempt.