Every summer as students leave the CU-Boulder campus for home, hundreds of high school and college students from CU's summer diversity programs take their places in the residence halls and classrooms.
This year marks the first time student in all of the summer diversity programs will have the chance to meet one another at the Diversity and Excellence Summer Gathering on July 8 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The gathering, which is being held south of the Business College at Observatory Field along Regent Drive, is sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Equity.
"It's a gathering for programs who mainly serve students of color and first-generation college students," said Chris Pacheco, associate director of the Student Academic Services Center. "It basically allows them to see the diversity available on campus."
Many of the summer diversity programs that will be represented at the gathering allow middle school and high school students and incoming freshman to experience a college atmosphere.
The I Have A Dream Summer Internship Program in Boulder County brings middle school and high school students to work in departments throughout the CU-Boulder campus. The program's focus is to familiarize students with a college campus, provide them with professional work experience and help them develop job skills and skills to prepare them for college.
The Pre-Collegiate Development Program and CU Upward Bound assist high school students, who are potential first-generation college students or members of underrepresented populations, with the transition into higher education through a summer residential program concentrating on academics.
The Minority Arts and Sciences Program and the Success in Engineering through Excellence and Diversity program are summer residential programs for incoming CU-Boulder freshmen.
CU-Boulder undergraduate students participating in summer diversity programs also will be at the gathering. The McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program, the Smart Program and the Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program support undergraduate students in preparing for their graduate research and studies.
The Academic Excellence "Summer Ready" Program is an intensive orientation program for students of underrepresented populations who are new to the campus. The program, which is under CU-Boulder's Student Academic Services Center, is designed to familiarize the participants with the campus.
"They're all here for the summer and we want to get them to meet, work together and build relationships so that when they do come to the university they can have some sense of comfort," said Mary Ann Sergeant of the Office of Diversity and Equity.
"We're trying to link these programs and communities that are dedicated to the development, recruitment and retention of diverse populations."