Portland Scholars (formerly Summer Scholars)

Project Status: Monitor/Assess

The Summer Scholars is a three-week summer program followed by a year-long academic workshop that supports early access to campus resources, community, and academic coursework to ease the transition from high school/community college to college.

Accomplished

2024 is the 4th Summer Scholars cohort and the largest to date:
- 173 Transfer Scholars
- 332 First-Year Scholars in the Summer and in the Fall combined
- 70 First-Year Scholars in the Fall
Outreach to all scholars to ensure compliance with the new requirement
2023-2024 Transfer Scholars Fall-to-Fall Persistence - 87.8%
2023-2024 FY Summer Scholars Fall-to-Fall Persistence - 66%
Hired a Scholars Coach and a Scholars Academic and Retention Specialist to work with this population and continue to work with them in their sophomore year.
Finalized budget for AY 2025-2026

In Progress

Finalizing faculty for the Summer 2025
Moving forward with hiring a Scholars Coordinator on a temporary wage agreement
Researching and planning ways to support the scholars in the Spring term since there is not a course component

Project Team

Sponsor: Erin Shortlidge
Project Leads: Shoshana Zeisman-Pereyo and Sonja Taylor
Project Coordinator: Iris De Lis
Team: Andrea Garrity
Collaborators: University Studies, Global Diversity and Inclusion, Admissions, Undergraduate Academic Advising, Transfer and Returning Students Resource Center