Local Students Work on Study Habits This Summer to Help Stay on College Path

The College Crusade of Rhode Island creates Ways to A’s study-skills program for students entering middle school and high school

Providence, R.I., July 30, 2007 – Hundreds of local students who are members of The College Crusade of Rhode Island are attending a new three-day study skills and school orientation program this summer called Ways to A’s. The curriculum is designed to introduce incoming sixth-grade and ninth-grade Crusaders to the academic, social, and personal challenges of middle school and high school. The instructors selected to teach in the Ways to A’s program are former members of The College Crusade who are currently in college or who are recent college graduates.

“We developed Ways to A’s to prepare Crusaders for the next step in their educational experience,” says Mary Sylvia Harrison, president and CEO of The College Crusade. “It is a required course for all Crusaders who are entering middle school or high school in the fall. We equip them with solid study skills and urge them to maintain high expectations for themselves as students.”

Ways to A’s coursework includes exercises in active listening, note taking, reading, and writing. The program also addresses memory improvement, test taking, learning styles, and time and classroom management. During the course, students acquire a host of new skills they can apply daily in school.

“The Ways to A’s course is an important element in our overall strategy of increasing college readiness among low-income students in Rhode Island,” continues Harrison. “Our instructors have special insight and advice to offer Crusaders because they completed The College Crusade program, graduated from Rhode Island high schools, and have been successful in college.”

Multiple small-group sessions of Ways to A’s are running throughout July and August at the Providence and Lincoln campuses of the Community College of Rhode Island. Ways to A’s instructors for this summer are:

About The College Crusade of Rhode Island

The College Crusade of Rhode Island is the state’s most comprehensive college-readiness and scholarship program for middle school and high school students in low-income school districts. It serves over 4,000 students per year and rewards the efforts and achievements of financially eligible students with up to four years of college scholarships. Since 2001, The College Crusade has awarded over $16 million in college scholarships to nearly 2,500 graduates of Rhode Island high schools.

The College Crusade is a nonprofit organization funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s GEAR UP program, by the State of Rhode Island, and by private corporations, foundations, and individuals. For more information, please visit www.thecollegecrusade.org.

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