Academic Outreach — Projects

Academic Outreach at the University of Utah is involved in two important projects, Safe Passage and the Elementary School Template Project.

Safe Passage

Safe Passage is a University- and community- wide partnership committed to reaching out to students of color, first generation prospective college students, and students facing substantial barriers, starting in the PreK-12 formative educational years and continuing through adulthood. Safe Passage seeks to foster an interest in as well as greater access to higher education as we lay the groundwork for successful recruitment and retention of our target students into a supportive and respectful University learning environment. Safe Passage is a forum for sharing ideas, supporting each others' efforts, and advocating for change. It is also a forum to facilitate partnerships among various campus units and community members/organizations as we develop collaborative projects and programming. A group of Honors Think Tank students at the University of Utah recently completed an Immigration Resource Guide that speaks to issues Safe Passage is currently working on.

Media campaign

U Community Outreach for Diversity within Marketing and Communications at the U collaborates with Safe Passage and Academic Outreach on a media campaign for the campus and the community. The goal of the media campaign is to communicate, promote and facilitate University of Utah outreach efforts to the campus-wide community and the broader state-wide community and to build an interactive communication network to help build and support a more diverse student population. The plan will be carried out in four phases including a website, directory, newsletter, and media ad campaign.

Creating partnerships in the community

As part of our mission, Safe Passage is in the process of supporting outreach efforts in Pre-K through 16 settings including kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and community colleges. Currently, our focus has been on creating sustainable relationships with students and representatives from high schools as well as Salt Lake Community College to better facilitate access and interest in higher education among first generation students, students of color, and other students facing substantial barriers.

Creating partnerships on campus

The transition of Safe Passage target students into the University and our ability to retain them is significant to our mission. Safe Passage will establish a new campus subcommittee beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year focused on retention of target students. The subcommittee will consist of a broad spectrum of representatives from across the campus community, drawing on expertise and best practices to deal with retention issues, particularly resource issues for first generation students, students of color, and other students facing substantial barriers.

Elementary School Template Project

The Elementary School Template Project is an on-going collaboration between Academic Outreach and Health Sciences LEAP to reach out to elementary school students on the west side of the Salt Lake valley. The template is centered on providing education and information to these young students about higher education. In the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years 2006-2007 Health Sciences LEAP students provided a series of presentations and a field trip for 3rd grade students at Mountain View Elementary School. The LEAP student reports and surveys completed for the LEAP Elementary School Template Projects in the Spring of 2006 and Spring of 2007 have provided guidance to current LEAP students, guiding the work of new LEAP students in the 2007-2008 academic year.