Summer Program Helps Students Prepare for Ossining High School

For four weeks this summer, dozens of students who graduated eighth grade in June attended the Freshman Academy to get a head start at Ossining High School.

The students learned the first unit of study for ninth-grade algebra, living environment, English and global studies, OHS Assistant Principal LaToya Langley said. They also worked on developing organizational and study skills that will help them at OHS and beyond.

This was the first year the district offered the summer program for incoming ninth-graders. It was open to everyone. Fifty-six students completed the four weeks.

“The Freshman Academy was developed in order to give students an opportunity to become more aware of the different skills needed to be successful in high school and beyond,” Ms. Langley said of the program, which was held at Anne M. Dorner Middle School.

Also at AMD this summer, OHS students entering the higher grades had a chance to recover credits in living environment, global studies, U.S. History and algebra, and prepare to take the Regents exams this month. They also learned through online coursework.

“The teachers are trying to develop the skills, content and the concepts that they need in order to successfully apply them to the Regents,” OHS Director of Student Academics Mirla Puello said.

The summer program for rising sophomores and older students started with an enrollment of 353, and it dropped to 273. So much material is packed into such a short period, that no one who missed two or more days received credit, Ms. Puello said.

On a recent day, rising freshmen in OHS science teacher Vanessa Lam-Tran’s living environment class were trying to build the highest freestanding tower possible with 25 plastic cups. The towers had to stand on their own for a minimum of 10 seconds, a challenging feat that tested the patience of some of the students. They also worked on exponents in algebra and writing document-based question essays in global history.

The Freshman Academy teachers are all on staff at OHS. “We decided to have Ossining High School teachers as instructors, with the hopes that students would begin to develop rapport with some of the teachers they will work with next year,” Ms. Langley said.

Rising ninth-grader Jazmyne Blake signed up to make sure she would not get lost or fall behind during her first year of high school. Teachers said summer academy students “are really caught up on what we need to know and that the other kids who didn’t come, they will have to learn this stuff,” Jazmyne said.

The OHS teachers also taught the incoming freshmen some “tricks” about getting around the building and how to figure out floors and locations listed on schedules, she said.

Soon-to-be ninth-grader Jennifer Vivar said the teachers in the Freshman Academy are helpful and nice. She and other students appreciated a visit from high school students one day to talk about OHS.

“It was pretty cool because they answered our questions,” she said, adding that some of the topics they discussed were school clubs and athletics teams.

“At the beginning of this program, I was actually really, really nervous to go to high school, but since we started this, it’s like I’m already in high school,” she said.

The students said they did not have to give up anything to attend the academy. The program was a half day four days a week for a month. On August 9, the last day, they went on a field trip to Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville and learned to fish.

Michael Rivera said he has gotten a lot out of the summer program, including new math skills. “I think it just helped me for when school starts,” he said. “It will be easier for me to understand things.”

Justin Cruz and Nicholas Perry agreed. “It’s helpful so I can know what’s going to happen next year and further on in the four years of high school,” Justin said.