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UVa guide program poised to become national standard
The Daily Progress
Aaron Kessler
March 25, 2007
University of Virginia graduate Sara Larquier could have done any number of things after graduating last year with a degree in American government.
But what she decided to do was spend a year helping others follow in her footsteps, as a “college guide” at Charlottesville High School. A typical day in March involves signing up juniors for SATs, helping seniors navigate the maze of financial aid possibilities and providing overall help to disadvantaged students to get them bound for college.
“A lot of kids are missing opportunities because they just don’t know how to prepare to go to college,” Larquier said. “So that’s why I’m here.”
The college guide program, the brainchild of UVa professor Nicole Hurd, was intended to pair recent university graduates with high school students across the state in an attempt to provide more of a peer-based counseling program. The guides all work either with or in conjunction with guidance counseling offices at Virginia high schools.
Now, the program, in its second year at UVa, will be going national.
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation announced last week that 10 colleges and universities will receive $1 million each to launch programs patterned after UVa’s college guides.
Hurd will head up the national organization, which will be based at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She will join the UNC faculty as part of her new job.
“Like UVa, [UNC] has a tradition of public service excellence,” Hurd said. “I’m very excited about this national project.”
Hurd said each of the participating schools will have a large degree of flexibility in developing their own programs, and that the national office will help train and guide the programs as they develop. That national office will also have the goal of further expanding the program in the coming years.
“We’re hoping that five years from now we might have 30 programs across the country,” Hurd said. “We have so many wonderful schools that have the dedicated young alums, so we’re hoping to tap into that.”
Larquier said she is able to connect with her students in a different way than guidance counselors, as they generally have an easier time relating to her.
“You just talk to them and have a conversation … they don’t see you as a high-ranked authority,” she said.
Hurd said the 10 grant recipients announced this week came from 169 original schools that were invited by the Cooke foundation to apply for the $1 million grants last year. In January, the contenders were trimmed to 56, and then last week the final 10 were announced.