BW Students Coach HS Students to GEAR UP for College Success

Baldwin Wallace University and Strongsville High School have been collaborating to develop an innovative program that helps prepare high school students for college, using BW students as coaches. The benefits of the Strongsville Writing Center/Academic Lab were recently featured at the GEAR UP Ohio Conference in Columbus. GEAR UP is a state project focused on embedding a college-going culture in targeted communities with the goal of increasing the number of low-income students who are college ready.

Susan Oldrieve, Ph.D., a BW English professor and Associate Dean of BW's School of Humanities, and Brian Tumino, Strongsville High School Assistant Principal and Secondary Curriculum Liaison, told GEAR UP conferees that BW student coaches are helping to boost vital reading and writing skills, AND discussing the transition to college life, with tips for making friends, managing time and balancing academics with social life.

The program has been such a success that the collaborators are looking for funding to continue and expand the work to other school districts and other subjects like mathematics. The Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, BW Honors Program and the BW English Department's Kirk Fund all helped support the program last year. 

In addition, College Now, which works with schools throughout Ohio to promote college success, is using the BW-Strongsville writing center project as a model of a successful partnership between secondary schools and institutions of higher learning.