Getting a good start: CollegeFirst program gives high school students a sneak peek

Jennifer Dunnigan, 15, a sophomore at Tuscaloosa County High School, uses an instrument Thursday to remove a piece of filter paper as her lab partner, Josh Robertson, 17, a senior at Bryant High School, looks on during an AP chemistry lab offered through CollegeFirst.

Math, chemistry, biology and English classrooms at the University of Alabama were filled Thursday with more than 85 Tuscaloosa city and county high school students participating in the fifth-annual CollegeFirst enrichment program designed to prepare students for the challenge of college-level Advanced Placement courses in math, science and English.

Impact Alabama in partnership with the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and A+ College Ready hosts the program at the University of Alabama campuses in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville for three weeks every summer to help students gain an understanding of the college experience.

Its more just showing them the college experience, said Amanda Rushdi, a regional coordinator with Impact Alabama. We just want to expose them to it before they get there.

The program recruits college students to help advanced placement instructors in the classroom throughout the three-week period. The students can receive credit or service hours by acting as tutors and mentors to high school students taking the advanced placement math, science and English classes.

Regional coordinator for Impact Alabama Katie Beaver said the program uses college students to show the high school students a firsthand view of what college life is like.

The high school students are benefitting a lot from being in direct contact with the college students because a lot of them are first-generation college students, Beaver said.

Josh Robertson, a student at Paul W. Bryant High School, learned how to mix solutions to form a precipitant Thursday in the advanced placement chemistry lab.

Robertson said he plans to attend UA and pursue a career as a dermatologist.

(The program) is a positive influence on what I want to do in college, Robertson said. (The mentors) help you get accustomed to what you would deal with in college, and it prepares you for school and keeps your brain active during the summer so youre not just sitting at home.

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Getting a good start: CollegeFirst program gives high school students a sneak peek