It'sNotAcademic Episode 3
Welcome to the latest episode of ItsNotAcademic: The podcast – education conversations from HEQCO. The Rethinking Access conference is taking place April 19 and 20 and one of the recurring themes that runs through the panel discussions is the role of early intervention programs and strategies. By the time they graduate from high school, many students have already made up their minds about whether they can or will pursue postsecondary studies. Early intervention programs offer supports to students at a much younger ager to help them imagine themselves on campus and figure out how to get there. This sounds great in concept, but what does an early intervention program for underrepresented groups actually look like? On this week’s episode we look at one case study: the Hamilton Community Foundation’s ABACUS program, which targets students in the middle school years. Sarah Glen, manager of the foundation’s community initiatives, and Jennifer Pearson, project coordinator, tell us how the ABACUS program works.