How Did You Spend Your Summer Vacation-

Summer Prep Academy Helped Teens

Incoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors took part in the six-week Summer Prep Academy. Photo: Steve Newvine

When I was in grade school, one of the first questions asked on the first day of class was “what did you do on vacation?” Our school students are now back in class.

College classes will resume soon. For all intents and purposes, summer is over.

I spent some of my summer with a group of high school students in an enrichment program held on the UC Merced Campus.

The program was called the High School Summer Prep Academy. It was a program of the Harvest Park Educational Center, a non-profit based in Merced.

Harvest Park Education Center was created to provide at-risk, disconnected, and poverty-stricken children and older youth with supplemental education and new information to build on their basic skills.

Retired Merced County Director of Workforce Development Robert Morris helps students in the Summer Prep Academy research what they need to do in order to pursue their preferred career paths.  Photo:  Steve Newvine

The summer academy is the result of work by Gloria Morris, an educator who has been creating programs to help youth overcome the obstacles they face growing up and, in turn, provide an opportunity for these youth to prepare themselves for higher education and the workforce.

During the six-week session, incoming freshmen, juniors, and seniors were given a review of basic math, sentence structure, and parts of speech.

The four-hour, daily lessons included opportunities to explore career choices that the students were passionate about pursuing.

And there were guest speakers. That’s where I came in. I was approached by Gloria and her husband Robert to consider presenting a few lectures on my professional career and how higher education helped open doors for me to get better opportunities throughout my forty-year working career.

The three of us developed a three-unit set of lectures on college preparedness.

I provided insight on my career achievements, Robert showed the students how to research their career areas of interest, and Gloria presented sessions on her Principles Based Lifestyle Training or PBLT.

PBLT is an evidenced-based learning curriculum developed by Gloria that focuses on the development of a strong academic foundation.

The Harvest Park Education Center is a non-profit organization that houses programs such as the Summer Pre Academy.

In the first of my three meetings with the class, I told my story about being the first in my family to graduate from college.

I connected my education and work experiences to the success I achieved over four decades.

My second meeting with the group provided an opportunity to offer suggestions on how to succeed academically. I used real examples from my experiences as well as the experiences of friends and colleagues.

Many of the lessons and experiences shared in the Summer Prep Academy were first mentioned in my 2010 book Soft Skills for Hard Times

The third and final session was about soft skills. Soft skills are the work habits, communication strategies, and people skills an employee can develop to help succeed at work.

It meant a lot to me to be able to share my experiences with this group. Based on their feedback, their questions during the sessions, and their participation in the training, the program succeeded on many levels.

Those levels would include refresher sessions on math, language skills, and basic writing. We can all use a refresher on those topics from time to time.

It was good for the group to see adults who have enjoyed some measure of success in their lives come into a classroom and share their experiences.

Speaking of my own experiences growing up, a real person doing a real job always made an impression.

It was also a plus to have the sessions on the UC Merced campus. The sprawling array of buildings, athletic fields, and parking lots might serve to inspire many to see beyond the confines of their home and school.

So the answer to the question “what did you do this summer” can be answered by the participants of this program with a simple response.

“I went back to school to learn a little about the real world.”

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Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book Soft Skills in Hard Times was a source for his talks to the students at the summer academy.

On September 6, he will speak at the Merced Women’s Club about his books and his twice-monthly columns here on MercedCountyEvents.com