As it enters the final year of its three-year trial period, the Talent Quest program is showing promise as a mechanism to make students from high schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas aware about the accessibility of an Ivy League education - specifically one at Brown.
Many people involved with the program agree, though, that there are still many improvements to be made, and some student volunteers said they were given little guidance after Brown asked them to help with recruiting at their high schools.
Talent Quest began in mid-2002 as a collaborative effort among members of the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Office of Admission and Alumni Relations. The program aims to establish strong relationships with high schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged parts of the country that are historically underrepresented at Brown. The program encourages students to consider pursuing an education at Brown - or anywhere else, particularly selective institutions like Ivy League schools. Without Talent Quest, these students might not realize they have such a choice.
One of the foremost priorities of Talent Quest is to form lasting relationships with the targeted high schools. For this reason, Talent Quest targets younger students instead of juniors who are already starting the college application process.
Associate Director of Admission Andrea van Niekerk created an initial list of 500 potential schools in 2002 by taking into account suggestions from alumni and students and relying on statistics from the admission office about matriculation rates from high schools around the country. Eventually, she pared it down to the 120 schools that the program currently targets.
The list of targeted schools, some of which still lack school chairs, covers a wide range - it includes urban, suburban and rural schools, in 29 states and the District of Columbia. Public, private and parochial schools serving populations of varying socioeconomic status are included.
The program received funding for three years. The money is used in a variety of ways: providing guidance counselors from the schools with airfare and accommodations so that they can visit Brown and get a feel for it themselves, sending periodic mailings to the schools to update them on what's going on around the University, assisting students who have been accepted but lack the financial means to attend A Day on College Hill and creating a database of the schools in order to track Talent Quest's success or failure at each of them.
Additionally, the University sponsored programs last year in New Jersey, Connecticut and Los Angeles to get the word out about Brown and other selective institutions. "(The programs) were not Brown-specific, but more public service, intent on providing information about selective schools," Niekerk said.
Admission officers led another session last weekend in Gallup, N.M., and there is talk of hosting one here at Brown in the future as a potential collaboration among Talent Quest, the Swearer Center and other programs, such as Let's Get Ready, which provides SAT preparatory classes to high school students who otherwise might not have access to them.
Niekerk was assisted in planning Talent Quest by Rahim Kurji '05, who was president of UCS at the time. "I did a lot of work getting in touch with students, collecting names," Kurji said. "People were really ready for a change and were willing to work for it. The University just couldn't make the commitment of resources before. The institutional backing (enables us to) establish relationships with these schools on a number of different levels, to show them that it's a serious commitment on our behalf," he said.
Kurji also helped recruit current Brown students from Talent Quest schools to visit their high schools over winter break and spread the word about Brown. The students were invited to an informational meeting explaining Talent Quest but beyond that weren't given many guidelines to follow when visiting their old high schools.
"You have to be flexible and provide what they need," Niekerk said. "The schools are so different from each other that there isn't one model - they are receptive to different things."
"It's something that I had already been doing informally since my freshman year here at Brown. I figured I was already doing it, so I might as well get involved for Brown," said Isis Burgos '05, who visited Union Hill High School - her alma mater - in Union City, N.J. in January.
Burgos spoke to an honors chemistry class there. "I basically explained to the students what it takes to do well in college, then opened it up to questions," she said. "Financial aid is a big concern. A lot (of students) tend to think that since Brown is so expensive they won't be able to come here. I explain that there is financial aid available."
Interaction with people like Burgos is invaluable to students at high schools like Union City, where only about 40 percent of students go on to college, Talent Quest planners said. Many of that 40 percent end up at state schools, commuting so that they can work part-time to support their families, Burgos said.
"I tell them that if they're interested in coming up to Brown to visit for a weekend, they should contact me," she said. "I think two kids that came to stay with me ended up getting in."
Students were asked to report their experiences to the admission office, though Niekerk said she did not follow up with them - something she regrets. "Time just ran out faster than anyone expected. I'm intent on not having that happen this year - (students are) volunteering their time," she said. "You need to let them know what's going on."
Burgos said that lack of follow-up was a problem. "I didn't even realize that it was still going on, since I hadn't heard from them in such a long time," she said. "But if asked to, I'd definitely go back to my school."
Laura Gerace '07 was so disappointed with the lack of contact after the initial meeting that she never ended up visiting her high school, Midwood High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., on behalf of Brown.
"I didn't actually go through with the whole thing, because it was really disorganized," Gerace said. "I was really excited about it because not that many people come here from my school. But after that first meeting, there was nothing. There was no follow-up at all."
Brenda Rubenstein '07, the high school networking coordinator for the Bruin Club, is working this year as the first student ambassador for the Talent Quest program. Rubenstein, who came from a Talent Quest school herself, has responsibilities that include making sure that student volunteers make contact with their high schools and form significant relationships with the guidance counselors there.
"We try to push students to commit to a little more than just a superficial relationship," she said. "It's almost a responsibility that students who come from disadvantaged areas should return the favor and teach people from these areas more about Brown and the college life that surrounds all different scenarios. It's about being ambassadors to their towns and showing students that they can achieve, they can go to college, they can achieve at college. It's more than just a Brown thing."
Alum volunteers play an equally integral role in Talent Quest. "The affinity groups took a great interest in it," said Mary Kim Arnold '95 MFA '98, director of multicultural and affinity programs for Alumni Relations. The volunteer opportunity has been extended only to alumni of color at this point, Arnold said, because the program is intended partly to give those alumni volunteer opportunities.
Alumni volunteers first establish contact with Talent Quest schools through guidance counselors. They are then responsible for feeling out how their time can best be spent at a given school.
"Some have been very successful in establishing an ongoing relationship and a local presence that schools can call on - a sort of role model position," said Jennifer Aitken '96, assistant director of the Brown Alumni Schools Committee. "We've been through enough that we're finding out that (alumni volunteers) may need more structure, a checklist of things to do."
As is the case with student volunteers, this can be hard to do, since it varies so much from school to school. "You literally need to go and see what specific needs each school has," Aitken said. "We're relying on volunteers for feedback on what venues they've been able to plug into - it's fair to say we're in the evaluative stage."
UCS's Admission and Student Services Committee has its own agenda of modifications that it would like to see made to the Talent Quest program this year.
"There are three different aspects to improving Talent Quest," said Ari Goodstein '06, committee chair. "We want to see the program extended to the international level, we want it to be strengthened in rural parts of the country - particularly the South and Midwest - and we want to get teaching alumni involved, because there are a lot of alumni who teach in high schools, and there is no reason not to work though them and network."
By the end of this year, Niekerk said she hopes to be able to look at what has been accomplished by Talent Quest so far and analyze what works and what doesn't.
"My feeling is that certain aspects work very well - we have to highlight those and put more resources into them," she said. "What makes it problematic is that it's not a short-term thing. This year will be the first we can say, 'Is there an appreciable difference? Why?'
"Talent Quest has different parameters, so measuring is hard. Maybe we don't see it (in the statistics), but there's an alum making connections, being successful in a different way. Not all schools are widely responsive - many are overwhelmed, responsible for hundreds of students. I think one has to be respectful of that. You do what you can to provide resources, but you can't be petulant," she said.
Niekerk said she thinks Talent Quest is just an example of the initiatives Brown is committed to and willing to put resources toward. She cited Sidney Frank's $100 million donation toward financial aid for Brown's most disadvantaged students; not only does it have the obvious effect of enabling more of students from Talent Quest schools to attend the University, it "reiterates that point - that this institution is committed to a wider definition of diversity, that it is both interested in and welcoming to kids from different socioeconomic backgrounds," she said.
