Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder Originally posted 12/17/2008

African American students are underrepresented

When Princess Chomilo-Kisob enters college next fall, she will have already received college credit, saved thousands of dollars for her family, and gotten over the initial anxiety and intimidation that often accompanies the transition from high school to college. All of this has been made possible through the Post Secondary Education Options (PSEO) program.

According to Laura Bloomberg, associate director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota (U of M), PSEO has been around for approximately 20 years. “At that time, [administrators] noticed that students’ high school experiences weren’t meeting their needs,�? Bloomberg said.

Through PSEO, eligible high school juniors and seniors can take college-level classes on college campuses while still enrolled in high school. The Minnesota Department of Education pays for PSEO tuition and books, with no cost to students and their families.

If the student completes and passes the course, they could receive both high school and college credit. The program currently works within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system, including Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) and Metropolitan State University, as well as the U of M.

Chomilo-Kisob grew up knowing that money for college would not be readily available. She knew that if she was going to attend college, she would have to work for it. “I felt pressured to get good grades, but thanks to my teachers and their support and willingness to help me, I accepted the challenge,�? she said.

Any 11th or 12th grader who is accepted into one of the above post-secondary institutions is eligible for the program. But Bloomberg says PSEO really needs to increase participation among students of color. In the academic calendar year 2006-2007, only 2.7 percent of eligible African American 11th and 12th graders participated compared to 5.1 percent of eligible White students.

Mary Lou Grunman, the school counselor at the Interdistrict Downtown School (IDDS), says about 16 of its students are involved in the PSEO program. It’s a small school, but students are encouraged to participate because of the early exposure to college.

“It [makes] them realize they can do it, which inspires them to want to go,�? said Grunman. “Some aren’t aware of other avenues into college,�? she added.

Chomilo-Kisob is a senior at IDDS. She got involved in PSEO as a high school junior because “her friends were thinking about it.�? She got the opportunity to visit the U of M as well as MCTC, but chose to attend the latter institution.

She has taken English sociology classes at MCTC, receiving dual credit as a high school student also earning college credits.

“In college, you’re not as close to the teachers,�? said Chomilo-Kisob. “There’s a distance. You’re more independent and on your own. The advantage is that you get to practice while communicating more with your high school teachers…asking them more questions.�?

“The kids have to make decisions,�? said Grunman. Students have to compose a schedule where they can fit in their high school classes, college courses, and maybe even extracurricular activities if they have them.

Although students are expected to adapt to a rather independent school day, there is some help. Every PSEO institution has advisers to meet the specific needs of PSEO students. “[They] know what courses to recommend. If [one] started as a junior, then they’re already hooked into the system,�? Grunman added.

“Many people are shocked that I’m in high school and wish they would have gotten a head start while in high school,�? said Chomilo-Kisob of fellow students in her college classes.

Participation is important, because the benefits often define the success of many students’ college careers. Perhaps the greatest benefit is the cost savings. At the U of M, each credit is worth $327. The cost of one semester for a full-time student is $5,378.

“PSEO is saving me and my mother money, and it looks good on college applications,�? said Chomilo-Kisob.

“In this economic downturn, we’re trying to advocate for students to go to college, but they need financial aid to make this happen,�? said Bloomberg.

“That’s one of the challenges. With PSEO and early enrollment, they’ll have time to look for scholarship money.�?

Besides cost savings and dual credit, early exposure is also an advantage. “It is estimated that nearly one-third of incoming freshman drop out before the end of their first year,�? said Grunman. “They get into college, and then they realize that it’s hard. This way, they’re learning what it is to be a college student, so they’re already interested and not so overwhelmed.�?

“One student began college as a junior because of all the classes she’d taken, and she was the first in her family to attend college,�? said Bloomberg.

One would think with so many benefits, there would be more participation.

Information about the program has mostly been circulated by word of mouth, but Bloomberg says their current recruitment efforts, which mainly focus on attracting students of color, will be targeted to community institutions.

Campus tours, community media, and translation of program materials into other languages are all part of PSEO’S outreach plan. There is even a student blog (http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cschhh/exchange/) and a Facebook group page.

But, Bloomberg says some high schools are discouraging participation. “Many times, it’s based on the skills and knowledge of the school counselor and priorities of the school,�? she noted. Other reasons for discouragement include school enrollment numbers or a student’s grades and behavior.

Many times, the schools that fail to promote these types of opportunities are where most students of color are. “When schools close out options, it does more harm than good when it could very well be exactly what they need,�? said Bloomberg. “It’s stunning the number of students who have a limited view of their options. With such a narrow view of what is their potential…we are losing our society’s future. But, we’ll keep trying to make sure people have information and exposure,�? she said.

Most of the program’s outreach is student-driven. The PSEO Communications Council is a group of current PSEO students and recent graduates who speak to prospective students about the program. At a recent event hosted by the U of M and the Council called “You at the U,�? a panel of PSEO students spoke to a group from Community of Peace Academy, an alternative charter high school on the Eastside of St. Paul.

One of the panelists, Jihan Samatar, is a senior at Roosevelt High School. She has taken courses in physics, Arabic, and political science at the U of M. “It takes a lot of hard work and self-motivation,�? Samatar told the students.

Samatar was recently accepted into the university’s College of Liberal Arts (CLA) program and has dreams of becoming a doctor. Another student on the panel earned 53 credits toward his engineering major while in high school.

“My advice is to definitely think about it ahead of time,�? said Chomilo-Kisob. “Once [you’re] in, there’s no turning back. You can always start with a small number of classes [and] then, as a senior, maybe [attend ] full time,�? she said. Chomilo-Kisob plans to double major in international relations and journalism, then attend law school to become an ambassador like her grandfather in Cameroon.

“These students are starting to connect to the future,�? said Bloomberg. “Some think college is so far off.�?

For more information about PSEO, ask your high school counselor or contact Karen Johnson at the MN Dept of Education, 651-582-8733 or karen.m.johnson@state.mn.us.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Application materials can be downloaded at http://education.state.mn.us/. Lauretta Dawolo Towns welcomes reader responses to ldawolo@yahoo.com.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For those who think PSEO will not fit into their schedule or think they will be too overwhelmed by college level courses, there is an option I don’t think many are aware of. Earlier this semester, I dropped one of my classes because it was not what I expected. Unfortunately, I had missed the deadline for registering for a new course. My advisor informed me, however, that I had the option of taking an Independent/Distance Learning course. I looked at the schedule of courses and decided to take a French course. Because of the way IDL courses work, I can work on my lessons whenever I have time and there are very loose deadlines. It’s definitely helped me get used to the new challenges PSEO presents and has made the transition from high school to college life easier. In addition, I did an internship this fall and work part time so I didn’t have much free time. The flexibility of the course made sure that I wasn’t too overwhelmed. So if you have a difficult schedule to work around, consider one of the many online or IDL courses available at the institution you are attending.

The PSEO program is intended to be a college preparatory program, but with a little determination and motivation, students can benefit financially from the program. Tuition at the University of Minnesota is almost eleven thousand dollars per year, so the fewer the years that have to be paid for the better. This is where the PSEO program comes into play. If students are serious about learning and have an idea of what their major is going to be, they can eliminate a year that they have to pay for college. The state of Minnesota pays college tuition to students willing to partake in the program during their junior and senior years of high school, so the more credits a student can fulfill in these two years the better. Also, textbooks are paid for in the PSEO program, and these books can get expensive.

In addition, another great advantage of the PSEO program is that the college credits you earn count towards your college degree and they fulfill your high school requirements. This is like killing two birds with one stone, because the high school classes that you need to take are counted on your college transcript also.

As for my personal experience, I am a senior in high school who has participated in the PSEO program at the University of Minnesota since last year. By knowing my major, which is electrical engineering, I can concentrate on taking classes that count towards my degree. Therefore, with good planning I can graduate with a four year degree by taking only three years of college after high school. This means that I have to pay for one year less than normal, which corresponds to eleven thousand dollars in tuition savings. Also, I will be able to make my first year’s salary sooner than peers who didn’t join the PSEO program.

In conclusion, the PSEO program is a great program to jump start your college career and has many financial benefits also. Hard-working students can potentially earn a four year degree by taking only three years of classes after high school, which is a huge financial savings. I took advantage of the PSEO program to make the most out of my college experience and to save money, and I know that other students can do the same. I strongly recommend the PSEO program to students who are willing to put forth an effort to go above and beyond what is expected.

Post-Secondary Enrollment Options, or PSEO for short, is a rather unnoticed advantage available within the public school systems today. Many students are unaware about this option, are not prepared when they do hear about it, and/or are not confident enough to muster up the ambition to take the challenge. What is PSEO, and what does it offer to a student in high school over taking the alternative route of completing purely high school courses? Well, to demonstrate some of the pros of PSEO, and perhaps some of the cons as well, I would like to share my personal experiences of PSEO over the past two years at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

I had the advantage of knowing about PSEO way ahead of time. I knew about it since my Freshman year in high school, and had been preparing for it since the first day of that year. I focused in class and kept my grades up. I applied just in time for the deadline for the Fall 2006 PSEO semester, and awaited my chance to begin PSEO when I started my Junior year.

When Fall 2006 came around, I was registered for two classes: English Composition and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. American Studies felt like a standard social studies class to me, but the English class I took must’ve been one of the most inspiring classes I’ve participated in out of all my years in school. The two graduate students who teamed up to teach the class were more brilliant than some professors I worked with. I had already been a solid writer at that point, but they took my skills and expanded them exponentially, and was a class I genuinely enjoyed participating in.

I noticed the advantages of PSEO right away. I had a shorter school day, I was getting years worth of credits all at once, I could be off-campus to get lunch outside of school without being a Senior, and my confidence in high school classes went up. Personally, I never really connected too much with my peers because I didn’t have many other PSEO classmates and the college students were on a different wavelength than I was, but the chance to meet tons of people is something else a more social person would probably appreciate in PSEO as well.

My second and third semesters were not as great as my first. A lot of it was on me for picking classes I could not stay interested in, some of it was on my graduate student instructor in my second semester in literature class, and some of it was unfortunate circumstances in third semester stacking on top of each other. Had I redone this time in my life, I would have researched my options better for classes. My advice for people at this stage of their options, or just beginning them, would be to find one class that fulfills a credit that you need, and beyond that search for classes that you will genuinely enjoy. Take a considerable amount of time doing this for you will be spending the next half of a school year in this class.

Here is my advice to high school students:

Consider taking a PSEO course even if you are afraid you don’t have the academic skills that you think are needed to take this step, I would suggest trying at the very least. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain from taking a PSEO class and giving it all you have.

Getting College Experience and Credit for FREE via PSEO

Minnesota has a great, but little known, program called Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO), that gives high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to take free college courses for credit. Here are some reasons why PSEO is a program that many high school students should consider:

• State funds pay for all the fees and expenses of this program—tuition, fess, and required textbooks are free of charge to PSEO participants • Students receive both high school and college credit • PSEO students have the option to enroll as part-time or full-time students (based on high school standing) • PSEO classes allow students to challenge their skills and prepare them for college

Although a 2005 report published by the Center for School Change found that PSEO participation among minority students was lower than Caucasian students, more than 110,000 students in Minnesota have benefited from PSEO, including me. I started taking free college courses via PSEO during my junior year at Edison High School in Minneapolis and continued on with the program throughout my senior year. When I entered my freshmen year at Carleton College in 2002, I was already a couple of credits ahead of my peers because of my PSEO classes. My experience with PSEO definitely made my transition from high school to college easier because I knew what to expect. It makes me very proud to be a “PSEO Alum.�? I am also pleased to be working with the Center for School Change to increase minority students’ participation in a program that really helped me in high school and college. Here are other students who shared their PSEO experience with me:

Chai Lee, from St. Paul, MN (PSEO Alum) Sophomore Political Science major, Carleton College

• Chai started PSEO during his junior year at Humboldt High School, in St. Paul. He took classes that interested him and fulfilled his graduation requirements, such as Law Enforcement and Urban Leadership. “I greatly benefited from them all�? says Chai. Taking PSEO classes helped Chai “become more analytical and think critically.�? Participating in PSEO also taught Chai how to be more “vocal and attentive in class.�?

Der Her, Minneapolis, MN Senior at North Community High School

• Also started PSEO during her junior year and takes classes at the University of Minnesota “PSEO has benefited me greatly…Through one semester of my English class at the University, I was able to complete a whole year of English for high school.�? Der also expressed how much money she will be saving once she starts college. “It saved me A LOT of money because it cut the number of credits and classes I will have to take when I do start college.�?

Yee Xiong, St. Paul, MN Junior at St. Paul Central

• Yee just started her PSEO classes this year and learned of the program through her older brother, who also participated in PSEO during high school. Yee and her siblings commute to the University of Minnesota together for classes. She stated that “college courses goes beyond what high school college-prep classes offer.�? This program has helped her develop her academic skills in several ways. “PSEO has prepared me for college because I am engaged in college courses with real college students in a college setting.�?

Chai, Der, and Yee are just a few of several thousands of students who took part in PSEO and benefited from the program. It is definitely a program that helps students with their academic skills and goals. If you would like more information about PSEO, please contact:

Sheena Thao Center for School Change thao0165@umn.edu www.centerforschoolchange.org

Sue Sattel Minnesota Department of Education 651-582-8471

Steve Etheridge Minnesota Department of Education 651-582-8771

Something that probably scares most high school students out of participating in the PSEO program is the fact that college kids are older, so they might feel intimidated. This is not something to worry about, for I am physically small for my size and I have never had a problem. The large class sizes may also seem intimidating, because lectures are held in auditoriums and class sizes are as large as 300 people. This is nothing to worry about either, just sit in the first few rows and you’re fine.

Another factor that students worry about is that the college classes will be too hard. College classes aren’t really that hard, for they are similar to high school AP classes. As long as you are willing to put sufficient work into each class, you are sure to do well. Also, make sure to attend lectures, because a popular habit of college kids is to skip lectures. I found that by attending all of the lectures, I automatically do better than most college kids who skip

The best part of the PSEO program is that your college classes count for your high school classes, and they count towards your major. This means that you won’t have to repeat any classes. For example, my high school requires a literature class to graduate, and the U of M also requires a literature class. Therefore I take just one literature class to fulfill both requirements.

The PSEO program is something that every college bound student should consider. The learning atmosphere is so much better in college than in high school, so you learn at a much quicker pace. There are so many advantages of the PSEO program that you just can’t pass up this opportunity.

What is PSEO?
The Post-Secondary Enrollment Options program, also known as PSEO, allows eligible high school students to take college level classes on college campuses while still enrolled in high school. The Minnesota Department of Education pays for PSEO tuition and books, so there is no cost to PSEO students or their families. Students have an opportunity to receive both high school and college/university credit for PSEO courses that are completed.

Who is eligible for PSEO?
11th or 12th graders in any public, nonpublic, home school or tribal school are eligible. Students must be accepted by a post-secondary institution and may enroll either full or part-time in nonsectarian courses or programs at that post-secondary institution.

Where are PSEO classes offered?
Students can apply to take PSEO classes at any eligible two year or four year college that has a PSEO program.

Around the Minneapolis area these colleges include the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), North Hennepin Community College, Metro State, and several other public and private institutions.

Why should high school students participate in PSEO?

Lots of reasons!

Get a jump start on your future: earn college credits while still in high school.

Learn more about college and explore interests in classes that may not be offered at your high school.

Save money: tuition and books are paid by the state of Minnesota.

Save time: you’ll be able to enter college with some credits already completed.

How do I apply?

You can get PSEO application materials from your school counselor or visit the website.

When is the deadline to apply for PSEO classes?

Application deadlines vary. Here are just a few:

University of Minnesota:

• Deadline to enroll in classes for Fall Semester 2008: April 1, 2008
• Deadline to enroll in classes for Spring Semester 2009: Oct 1-2008

Minneapolis Community and Technical College:

• Deadline to enroll in classes for Fall Semester 2008: May 19, 2008
• Deadline to enroll in classes for Spring Semester 2009: Nov. 3, 2008

Metro State:

• Deadline to enroll in classes for Fall Semester 2008: June 6, 2008
• Deadline to enroll in classes for Spring Semester 2009: Dec. 14, 2008

North Hennepin Community College:

• Deadline to enroll in classes for Fall Semester 2008: July 1, 2008
• Deadline to enroll in classes for Spring Semester 2009: Dec. 1, 2008

Where can I get more information about PSEO?

First, check with your high school counselor and make sure you are able to fulfill all of your high school graduation requirements.

The Minnesota Dept of Education: Karen Johnson, 651/582-8733 (karen.m.johnson@state.mn.us)

Check out the PSEO students’ blog (a collection of resources and reflections by current PSEO students and recent graduates):

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cschhh/exchange

This summary is brought to you by the PSEO Communications Council, a group of current PSEO students and recent graduates who want to make sure that all students know that they, too, can take advantage of this great opportunity to experience college while still in high school!

High School

*High school is mandatory

*Your time is structured by others

*Parents and teachers remind you of responsibilities and help set priorities

*Most classes are arranged for you

*The school year is typically 36 weeks long

*You may study about 0-2 hours/week, typically for last-minute test prep

*You are typically told what you need to learn from assigned readings

*Teachers check your completed work

*Teachers approach you if they believe you need assistance

*Teachers are often available before, during, or after class

*Teachers often remind you of assignments and due dates

*Testing is frequent and covers small amounts of material

*Teachers often arrange test dates to avoid conflict with school events

*Grades are given for most assigned work

*Grades are based on homework and tests

*Courses typically reward a “good faith�? effort

College

*College is voluntary

*YOU manage your own time

*YOU balance responsibilities and set priorities

*You arrange your schedule

*The school year has two semesters

*You need to study 2-3 hours for each hour in class, including a lot of individual reading

*Lectures/assignments assume you have read/understand the assigned material

*Homework is not always checked, but it’s assumed you can do similar tasks on tests

*Professors typically expect you to initiate contact if you need assistance

*Professors usually want you to attend their scheduled office hours

*Professors expect you to read, save, and consult the course syllabus for due dates

*Testing is often infrequent and cumulative, covering large amounts of material

*Tests are scheduled without regard for other classes and outside activities

*Some required assignments aren’t graded

*Most grades are based on tests and papers

*While “good faith�? is important, it won’t typically change the grade you earned

Readers should know that Jahi is going to be an exchange student in Japan next year!

Readers should know that Catalina loves science and history. She speaks three languages fluently: Spanish, Vietnamese and English. She also enjoys painting, singing and dancing.