In this episode of College UnBound, Focus Collegiate Founder and Principal Grant Leibersberger and Enrollment and Outreach Director Ann-Marie Stripling discuss the Focus Collegiate Summer Cohort and the importance of college prep.

The Summer Cohort is a three-week in-person college readiness experience in Boston designed for rising college first-years who need extra support before they land on campus in the fall. The program addresses academics, life, digital literacy, and independent living skills. Students take classes, work on study habits, and basically get a taste for college life. See sample schedule here.

The staff at Focus Collegiate knows that in the novel setting of college, some of the assumptions a student has about their own learning profile can start to fall away. In the Summer Cohort, before they are inundated with the new responsibilities of college, the student and our staff start to see where a student might struggle and begin to shore up their strengths, creating long-term strategies for college success.

At the Summer Cohort, students practice in a safe environment what college will be like and how they will face its rigors. “It’s very important for both students and parents to practice what it is going to be like going away to college…For students, it’s about previewing all the things they will need to learn; for parents, it’s about ‘what am I going to do with myself now that my son or daughter is gone? What kinds of things are going to change for me as a person?’” said Ann-Marie Stripling.

“Forming great relationships is an important output of the Summer Cohort… particularly for the students who are going to be getting to know the staff they are going to be working with in the fall,” said Grant Leibersberger.