Although campus life may feel peaceful and slow to students enrolled in summer classes, some of those students are completely overwhelmed by the University’s friendly 3,391 acres.
These students are between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, and have yet to begin their senior year of high school. They have come from all over the nation to participate in Summer College for High School Students. This program is designed to give precocious high school students the opportunity to experience the collegiate lifestyle.
They enroll in a minimum of two classes and reside in the Luckyday Residential College. They are divided into communities led by counselors, some of whom are undergraduates. These counselors spend time with the students daily and help them adjust to independent living.
“I find ways to interact with them to make sure they’re on the right track,” said Lakedrick King, a long-time SCHS counselor and university graduate. “Freedom with boundaries, we call it.”
On the weekends, students participate in supervised activities, such as lunch on the square, a trip to Geyser Falls and a day trip to Memphis.
This year, the first session brought in 129 students ranging from hometowns of Madison, Mississippi to Mexico City. The Lott Leadership program, a prestigious branch of the program for students focused on public service, brought in twenty students. These future leaders will spend the last week of the program in Washington, DC.
These students aren’t always easy to pick out on campus. They are official undergraduates and are responsible for their own school work and well-being.
“It’s the most real college experience I know of in this part of the country,” said Cass Dodgen, program director. “We really let our students be students. We don’t call our professors and let them know that there are high school students in their classes. We don’t ask them to teach their classes any differently.”
Although Summer College’s primary goal is to give its students a college experience, the program has become the driving force behind countless applications since its inception.
“There are times when students come to summer college that may not have considered Ole Miss otherwise,” Dodgen said. “They end up coming back to the university as an undergrad student. We’re really proud of that.”
Many of the counselors are former SCHS students themselves, such as North Carolina native Elizabeth Romary. Her story is one of many “conversion” accounts that have landed former Summer College students at Ole Miss their freshman year.
“I was kind of forced to attend Summer College, actually,” Romary said. “Then I fell in love with it, and I rejected UNC Chapel Hill.”
Before doing the program, Ole Miss wasn’t even on her radar.
“I would never even have considered going any further south than South Carolina if I didn’t do Summer College,” she said.
Some students express skepticism about the influence of the program. Romary said her go-to response is “See what you say in five weeks.”
Dodgen said the program’s main goal is to expose high school students to college life.
“We don’t put any pressure on the students to come back here,” Dodgen said. “Ole Miss sells itself.”
