UA Mentor Helps High School Students Excel through Summer Tutoring Program

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – With only a few weeks left in the spring semester of her junior year of college, University of Alabama student Jacqueline Koncsol, was looking forward to a summer of relaxation in her hometown of Birmingham. But after reading a seemingly ordinary email, she knew her plans were going to change.

Olivia Grider, research project coordinator for UA’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, asked Koncsol to participate in a summer pilot program in which college students tutor and mentor high school students who are preparing to take Advanced Placement courses at their high schools.

“She told me about this wonderful opportunity to tutor high school students in Birmingham and I knew that it was an opportunity too good to pass up,” says Koncsol.

The program Grider was referring to is CollegeFirst, a nationally unique summer enrichment program designed to prepare the state’s rising 11th- and 12th-graders for the challenge of college-level Advanced Placement courses in calculus, biology and chemistry.

For the past two summers, Koncsol, a math major, has tutored students in calculus and biology. Calculus concepts that were taught include graphical analysis, trigonometry, rates of change, position, velocity and acceleration functions and limits. Biology concepts taught include cell membrane functions, organic molecules, cell energetics and Mendelian Genetics.

“It’s a great feeling being able to help students understand these subjects and prepare them for college,” says Koncsol, who was one of the 15 UA students involved in implementing the CollegeFirst program in Birmingham and Huntsville last year.

This year, the program expanded and was offered on UA’s campus as well to serve students in the Tuscaloosa City and County School Districts. And, CollegeFirst was able to serve more than 215 high school students from seven school systems in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville. Some 40 college student mentors from UA led the high school students in all three cities through three weeks of intensive lessons. The UA students were joined by an additional 30 college students from other campuses across the state as mentoring partners.

UA students are able to participate in the program through courses offered by the University’s Honors College and New College. Their work as mentors counts as a summer course and gives them three hours of class credit. They also can volunteer.

CollegeFirst is a partnership with A+ College Ready, a collaborative initiative committed to expanding and strengthening math, science and English AP programs in Alabama, as well as Impact Alabama, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and implementing substantive service-learning projects in colleges across the state.

“This initiative provides successful college students as both tutors and mentors, helping increase the number of Alabama students who will be ready not only to attend college, but to excel in college,” says Stephen Black, CESR director and president/founder of Impact Alabama.

Now finished with her senior year at UA, Koncsol plans to work for Impact Alabama as a regional coordinator beginning in the fall.

“Working with Stephen Black has been great and I’m so excited to continue to do so next year with Impact Alabama,” says Koncsol.