At the end of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s annual Summer Bridge program, participants are required to reflect on their experience during the five-week session.
For some of the Summer Bridge mentors who were once on the other side of the session as students, the ability to reflect on how it affected them comes easily.
“It was an experience that allowed me to find myself,” said Dorrian Robinson, a senior digital media studies major. “When you’ve just graduated high school, making that transition to college is not an easy thing to do.”
The program, which is by referral only, provides conditionally admitted students the opportunity to be in a college environment while also offsetting potential deficiencies in comprehension in reading, writing, and mathematics skills. Once students successfully complete Summer Bridge, the participants will be admitted to UMES as part of its incoming freshman class.
Another of the program mentors is Aniya Hood, a senior biology major. Her story about her placement into Summer Bridge was less about her academic struggles.
Normally a 3.5 to 4.0 GPA student in high school, Hood had her world rocked during her junior year following her grandmother’s cancer diagnosis. Hood’s focus then pivoted to taking care of her ailing grandmother.
“There was a point where she could no longer do things on her own anymore, and I couldn’t leave her home by herself,” Hood said. “That’s when I started not going to school, and just like that, it all hit the fan.”
As both students arrived at UMES for the program, they took advantage of the opportunity to get a head start on their fellow incoming freshmen.
For Robinson, it was being able to get out of his comfort zone.
“I just needed to feel uncomfortable to be comfortable in my new environment,” he said. “I was able to break out of my shell and experience more things by being in the program.”
Hood added that her motivation in completing the program was to help break a generational curse by being the first in her family to attend college.
As the students in the Summer Bridge program move on to the next step of their academic journey, Hood and Robinson, who now serve as Miss and Mister Senior, respectively, want the students to know that it’s not always about how they start, but how they finish.
“Just because you had to complete a summer program to get full acceptance, don’t let it discourage you,” Hood said. “Don’t limit yourself because you feel that you are coming in below everybody else.”
“This is an opportunity you have to take advantage of,” Robinson said. “You’ve been called here for a reason, so don’t waste your talents trying to impress people.”
