Mini dose of college

Willamette Academy prepares minority teens for higher education.

The Collegian
October 15, 2003
By Keena Presnell

Reprinted with permission of The Collegian.

When she finishes her ninth grade year, she will be the most educated person in her immediate family. The oldest of six, 13year-old Britney Zavavla helps her younger sister with math, and has already taught her father and brothers to read. Now, it is her turn to do some reading as she sits in the computer lab of the Willamette Academy and begins her study hall.

The Willamette Academy was created as a link between the community and campus. It tracks selected students from the Salem area providing them with academic enrichment and support as well as the offer of complete financial aid if they were to choose to come here.

This year marks the second year that the Academy has been in action. After receiving an anonymous $1 million gift, the Willamette Academy now has an endowment to ensure Britney and her class success past high school.
The donors will send the money in two payments. The first is expected this year and the next is anticipated next year. The funds will be used to set up an endowment. In the endowment, the million dollars is considered the principal and can never be spent.

The principal is put into an account to generate interest and to fund the Academy. It will be used for the operating budget, which pays for the Summer Residency (academic camp when the kids live on campus), year round academic enrichment needs, teaching materials, and staffing.

" They (the donors) are interested in promoting diversity pretty simply. They are alums and are committed to the same goal that Willamette's Academy is committed to. It is very gratifying to share commitments," said Elaine Green, Interim Executive Director of the Academy.

Those goals are to help students do well in their classes, improve their self-image, and familiarize the students with college.

The estimated cost per student is about $4,000 per year to be placed into the operational budget. There is no cost to the parents or student, making each student a $20,000 investment before they decide which college to go to. "It is more expensive to do it this way, but we expect results to justify it," Green said. The Academy relies on grants, fundraising donations to keep its doors open. The $1 million donation exists in an endowment, and the funds used will come from the perpetuity and generated interest.

"The significance of this endowment is it is ensuring the long term of the Willamette Academy. In other words guaranteeing the future of the academy," said Paula Sams-Ingle, Assistant to the Executive Director. Many people of all ages anticipate whatever positive effects the future of this program may bring.

Andrea Barrios, a 13 year-old student at Waldo Elementary said, "My mom is very excited because she wouldn't have enough money to get me to college. She is really pushing me to do a good job. I think it is real important to me. I could have a better future for when I grow up. I want to get good grades. I want to finish five years (at the Willamette Academy) then come here and get my masters."

It is Barrios' first year in the program, and she dreams of becoming a health teacher.

"The program has many strengths. One of the primary ones, I would say, is that it allows the kids to see for themselves that they can go to college if they really want to. Among others, they get to explore careers of their interest," said junior Carlos Ruiz, a tutor for the program.

Fourteen-year-old Elvira Jeminez dreams of becoming a spy. Zavavla wants to teach in India, after studying at Harvard.

The program currently has 50 students, seventh-and-eighth grades, enrolled. Only one student has dropped out. Students were selected based on financial need, college history of their family, the activities they are involved in, as well as teacher recommendations that evaluate the maturity, participation, and the barriers that each student needs help to overcome.

Parents get involved with their child's education through a parent group that the Academy created so the parents know what they need to contribute for their child's success.

Each student must maintain better than a C average in all their classes. They are also expected to come to one tutoring session/study hall per week, and be involved with monthly Saturday Enrichment sessions where they listen to lectures, learn crafts, practice trades, etc.

Recommendations were submitted on behalf of the tutors by some of their past middle school teachers. They became role models, due to the similarities between student and teacher.

"I myself have been and still am an under-represented student. Like all Willamette Academy students I am a first generation college students in my family," junior tutor Jaime Arredondo said. "Secondly, kids these days learn best by example and by that I mean seeing someone like themselves succeed to a certain level of education."

A strong relationship develops between most people involved in the Willamette Academy. The students, like Zavalva, learn cooperation, and meet new friends. Her favorite things about the program are "getting to meet- new people and experience new things. I get to learn a lot more. I go to school and kids are like, 'How do you know that?’” She said with a smile.

"I hope to learn to work with other people in a big group, and to know that people are pushing me to go farther."
Arredondo may try to be one of those people. "I have been here from the start, and I don't plan on leaving until I see that these kids have been accepted and received the necessary financial aid at a top-notch school."

As their minds turned toward the now certain future, new goals are established. Green and Sams-Ingle hope that the endowment will grow and they will attract others into the endowment so they don't have to spend time fundraising.
Ruiz's hopes fall along the same lines, "For the future of the Academy I would definitely like to see more kids getting accepted, which would mean getting endowments," he said.

"The only weakness of the program is the space is limited to a certain number of kids each year."

Willamette Academy News Archive

Fall 2007— Academy Sends Off Graduates, Welcomes New Director (from The Scene)

Summer 2007— Paving the Way (from The Scene)

July 18, 2006 - June 18, 2007 — A Year in the Life: Willamette Academy (an continuing story by Sarah J. Evans)

Oct. 10, 2005 — Salem family’s dream lost in son’s death (from the Statesman Journal)

Jul. 22, 2005 — Streams get some TLC (from the Statesman Journal)

Nov. 16, 2004 — Willamette Academy Awarded $75,000

Sep. 1, 2004 — College preparatory program wins grant (from the Statesman Journal)

Feb. 20, 2004 — Classified Staff Supports Willamette Academy (from Inside Willamette)

Oct. 15, 2003 — Mini dose of college (from The Collegian)

Sep. 26, 2003 — WU Program Receives $1 Million (from the Statesman Journal)

Fall 2003— Donation Brings a Million Opportunities (from The Scene)

Mar. 23, 2003 — Blueprints for diversity (from the Statesman Journal)

Feb. 17, 2003 — The Monday Profile: Champion of Diversity (from The Oregonian)

Fall 2002 — Willamette Academy Offiers Bridge to Students of Color (from The Scene)

Aug. 10, 2002 — Two-week camp exposes life in higher education (from the Statesman Journal)

Aug. 9, 2002 — University helps kids make grade for future (from The Oregonian)

Jun. 1, 2001 — Willamette Receives Grants to Establish Programs for Ethnically Diverse Students