Western Front - 1971 July 21

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WEDNESDAY
July 21st 1971
BELLINGHAM
RECYCLE ALL PAPER
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Project Overcome Helps Disadvantaged
Students In 'Fairly Successful' Program
Photo By LOREN BLISS
An Interview With Director Lucy Thomas
By JOHN STOLPE
Editor
Encouraging young culturally, socially
and economically deprived high school
students that it is to their advantage to get
a college education is not any easy
task—especially when some people believe
that such disadvantaged youth have no
business in college in the first place.
For Lucy Thomas, director of Western's
pioneering Project Overcome, it is all part
of a hard day's work.
Miss Thomas heads a three-person staff
here--which assists deprived students in
their difficult transition from high school
into college.
Project Overcome began on this campus
eight years ago when only six programs of
its type existed in the United States.
Today, there are 294 similar programs
across the nation, most called Upward
Bound.
The project here involves 100
students-50 of them high school seniors,
and the other half entering college
freshmen. The racial mixture is maintained
close to one third each black, white and
indian/chicano.
There are no intelligence tests for
students chosen to enter Project Overcome,
Miss Thomas explains, the project admits
students on the basis of recommendations
by high school counselors and other
students participating in the project.
"We purposely do not choose students
with high grades," Miss Thomas explained.
"We are interested in students who
normally would not complete high school
or college, although they show the
potential for achievement."
Although admission regulations are
academically slack, the students are
required to read at a seventh grade level, at
least.
The project has had some difficulty in
recruiting chicano students, because many
spend the summers in the fields with their
parents.
But now the project is planning to go
out into the fields and bring the program
to the students, instead of the students
travelling to the program.
During the time the students are "under
the wing" of Project Overcome personnel
and programming, they are given a great
deal of help to stay in school and later to
enter a college of their choice—not
necessarily Western, although the greatest
percentage does.
"We purchase books and clothing for
the students, if they heed them to stay in
school," Miss Thomas said. "We have even
provided medical assistance."
During the summer, all the students are
brought to campus under a special
residential program for six weeks beginning
June 30. Here they attend special classes
and receive counseling help from college
personnel in areas of finance, curriculum
and so forth.
During the normal part of the year, the
high school senior half of the project is
visited at least once a month by Overcome
staffers. They give additional counseling
assistance to the students and tend to their
needs, if any.
The entering freshmen, veterans of a
previous summer's experience on campus
and through-the-year counseling, attend
the final summer session and then are
pretty much on their own.
"They are technically out of our hands
after Sept. 1," Miss Thomas explained.
Project Overcome does not come cheap.
It is estimated that it costs the
taxpayers about $1,000 annually to keep
one student in the p ogram. The project
here at Western is kept afloat with an
annual $126,000 in federal and non-federal
funds. The college contribution is
comparatively very little—the project,
though, uses all of the college facilities.
How successful is Project Overcome?
The project here does not escape
evaluation, although most of the evaluation
is done by the project director and her
staff and students involved in the program.
One tangible evaluation item is the
statistical fact that 39 of the project's 50
students who enter the program each year
will actually enter college. Getting the
students into college is the project's
primary goal.
Miss Thomas said that at. least 20 of
those 50 students will attain the equivalent
of an associate of arts degree. She said that
in a couple of years the project will have
accurate data revealing the number of
students who actually attain a full college
degree.
"We have been fairly successful," Miss
Thomas said. "However, the college has
not met us all the way." She added:
"Many of these students are placed in
the same classes with students who have
much higher grade point averages, and
those same disadvantaged students are
expected to keep up with the rest of them
. . . for many it has been difficult and
frustrating."
Miss Thomas said the project needs
special classes for its students—classes
which the college has not yet provided.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 6)
X. WESTERN WASHINGTON STATE COLLEGE, VOLUME 63, NUMBER^