In an attempt to strengthen Conn’s position in the world of academia, the College is launching an inaugural pre-college summer program in July 2023. Four different residential programs, lasting between nine and twelve days, will allow high school students to experience college life in New London. Participants will immerse themselves in an intensive session across one of four fields of study: entrepreneurship, dance, international relations, and environmental studies. Each program, led by an expert faculty member from the College, will foster a deeper understanding of topics that are paramount to the learning experience of Conn students and culminate in final projects that mimic a college-level or real-world product.
While the College has previously offered limited summer courses and research programs for Conn students, the Summer at Conn program will bring a new dynamic to campus throughout the summer months. According to program director and class of 2020 graduate Ashlyn Healey, the main goal of the Summer at Conn program is to “maintain and amplify Conn’s reputation on a local, regional, and national scale.” This reputation, according to Healey, is based on the unique education experience and “has a lot to do with the connections curriculum and the identity of the institution.” Through programs that cover such a wide array of topics, Summer at Conn will allow for a further proliferation of the ideals that define the College, widening the scope of those who can experience all that Conn has to offer.
The Venture Incubator program, led by Dean of Academic Support Noel Garrett, focuses on critical thinking and problem solving through the lens of developing a functioning business concept. This program is an extension of the Entrepreneurship pathway and a curriculum originally developed for Conn students who have been pushing for more entrepreneurship-focused programming at Conn over the past 5 years. Garrett states that “the biggest learning objective is thinking outside the box and learning how to approach a problem differently, not just applying solutions that you thought about in the past but taking a designed thinking approach to finding different ways to solve the problem.” Further, he stressed the importance of this program as “young people, especially high schoolers, are going to think very differently about what they do for work in the future” as the pandemic has “changed the way people work forever.” Garrett concluded that “getting young people to think differently about how they see their futures is really important and is one of the things that this program can do for high schoolers.”
Along with the expertise that Garrett brings to the Venture Incubator program, the other opportunities further highlight academic excellence at Conn. The Dance Intensive program with Professor David Dorfman, renowned for his work both in Conn’s Dance Department and with his independent dance companies, will “focus on technique and choreography while exploring how bodies serve as powerful conductors of emotion, strength, vulnerability and change,” according to the College website. Melissa Ryan, Director of the Walter Commons for Global Studies and Engagement will run a program titled Global Focus, covering global issues across a spectrum of “global governance, migration, human rights, and the role of media and public opinion in policy making.” This program culminates in a model diplomacy simulation using practical skills developed throughout the initial stages of the program. Finally, the Environmental Action through Research, Theory, and Heart (EARTH) program run by a conglomerate of faculty members across the Environmental Studies and Botany departments, will utilize the arboretum as a research lab to “study the historical global circulation patterns and local geologic evidence that constructed past climates, as well as the science of renewable energy and how it may be used to affect our changing climate.”
In the early stages, the College believes that targeting alumni who have high school age children will allow for the tight-knit alumni network to support the growth of Summer at Conn. However, down the road, the College hopes its summer programs will become a staple of the community and will appeal to a wider range of high school students. While “it is not a goal that we are actively working toward, to have these pre-college students matriculate as undergrad students, it is a side effect that we anticipate having.”
Healey also believes in the importance of fostering a strong relationship between the program and the local community. This summer, the College will be sponsoring 7 students through existing community outreach programs that Conn regularly works with through the office of admissions. Partnering with the New Haven branch of the Squash Education Alliance and the Achievement First Network, both of which work with underprivileged students from a young age and support them with the ultimate goal of college placement.
While furthering Conn’s influence and informing the next generation is at the forefront of the project, Summer at Conn will also work to diversify the College’s revenue streams. Healey noted that “Conn is a tuition-driven institution, and the vast majority of our operating budget comes from tuition.” Further, “the pandemic illustrated to every institution that there is so much opportunity to be creative, and this is just one example of how Conn is taking the opportunity to be creative and to think about things in a new way.” Garrett furthered this sentiment, stating that after initially launching the program and growing it over the years, “it could be a decent revenue generator for the college” as well as “opening the eyes of students to Conn that may now know it exists on their radar of colleges.”
Conn’s unique campus, including the arboretum and waterfront, provide a beautiful backdrop in the summer months. The College, through Summer at Conn, will now utilize its natural assets throughout the entire calendar year by opening its doors to high school students while facilitating a mutually beneficial program that highlights its personalized curriculum and plethora of expert faculty members. •
