Assumption students focus on success

• By JOHN A. COLVIN
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Jul 29, 2008 - Page: 4B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NAPOLEONVILLE — When school starts Aug. 7, Kelsey LeBlanc will begin her senior year at Assumption High School fairly confident in the direction of her education.

Leaning toward a career in dentistry with a focus on facial surgery, she credits a rare opportunity she and seven of her schoolmates received — a chance to attend Pathways to Success at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., for the past two summers.

“Before the program, I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do,” LeBlanc said. “After graduating from it, I feel really prepared.”

Pathways to Success is an academic immersion program geared to exposing rural American high school students from underserved areas to collegiate academic rigors.

“It is designed for those from lower-income communities,” said Tina Landry, a guidance counselor at Assumption High who is overseeing the program at the local level. “They are looking for people interested in the health sciences in the rural communities.”

Students begin the admission process their sophomore year, she said, and must have a grade-point average of 3.5 on a 4-point scale. Applicants must provide letters of recommendation from a science teacher, a parent and a community member.

The Georgetown program aims to spark the students’ interest in biomedical science, health care and science technology by providing hands-on experiences, according to the program’s Web site.

Those accepted into the program spend three weeks in the summer before their junior year and then again before their senior year at the university.

Summer Biomedical Science Institute allows first-year students to receive one college credit and second-year students to receive three college credits, the program’s Web site says.

Their days begin at 9 a.m. with classroom lectures and continue after lunch with laboratory instruction or an occasional guest speaker, LeBlanc said. Each day they have a test.

“The labs were really cool,” said Alfred Frank, a fellow Assumption High student.

He said they dissected a lot of specimens, including a human ear, rats and other animals, to learn about anatomy.

Frank said he got a good feel about how college will be but is not sure what options he might pursue.