Sylvia Ruiz ’05 distinguished herself as a leader while a student at Scripps, as an RA for Browning Hall in her senior year, and as co-founder of Café Con Leche, a student organization designed to support women of Latin descent. She has also worked with the admission office to recruit women of color.
Now, Ruiz will direct the Summer Academy, a two-week residential program that brings students from racially and economically diverse communities around Los Angeles to Scripps, where classes and workshops give them a taste of what attending college is like. Professors serve as mentors, encouraging students to start preparing for college early. As an RA for the academy, and last year as an intern to the director, Ruth Cusik ’03, Ruiz has been involved with the development of the Academy from the start, and plans to continue developing and expanding the program as it has been designed.
“A personal goal of mine is to create more parent involvement,” says Ruiz, who hopes that programs like a Spanish-language financial aid workshop for parents will help “demystify the process.”
The Summer Academy provides resources to help students succeed, including academic mentoring and writing workshops. “They get access to SAT courses, there’s a support group, there’s a network there rooting for them, making sure they achieve that goal of going to a four-year college.” Other follow-up programs include a book club and trips to museums and to Scripps to hear relevant speakers.
The program is already a sucess: all 13 Summer Academy graduates who have completed high school are enrolled in four-year colleges this fall. According to Sylvia, “That says a lot about the students’ own motivation and courage. My hope is that those students become mentors for other Summer Academy students in the future.”