Program allows students to give summer school the old college try

Caitlin Hudgins

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 3:43 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 3 - 4, 2004

Applications for the SAGE Academy are due by Friday. For more information, call Carrol Steedman at 895-1021.

High school sophomores, juniors and seniors will have the chance to get a head start on college this summer by earning college credit for taking classes with the Honors College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Summer Advanced Gifted Education Academy seminars run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 19 through Aug. 6, covering topics such as "The Modern Woman: U.S. Women in the 20th Century," "Effective Public Speaking," "Sister Republics: France and America from World War II to Today" and "The Global Dance: Modern International Relations."

The $500 classes are open to gifted students, National Merit Scholars or finalists and students who have taken honors or advanced placement high school classes. The program was advertised through Clark County high school counselors, who encourage students to apply.

Director of Credit Programs Carrol Steedman said the seminars will show high school students how education works in a college community.

"I hope they will take a real excitement about coming to a university and an appreciation for what it is to study a subject in depth and to have some new insights into a subject and how other people think about it," she said.

The class topics are unique because the professors chose the subjects themselves, Steedman said.

"These (subjects) were developed by individual faculty who are used to working with young and bright students and thought these would be interesting topics for high school students," she said.

DeaAnna Beachley, who will teach "The Modern Woman," said the seminars will be a good introduction for high school students planning to pursue higher education -- especially those students hoping to take advantage of Nevada's Millennium Scholarship.

"It gives high school students the chance to get the college experience," she said.

Beachley's class will provide a basic survey of women in the past hundred years by emphasizing research, she said. But the professor recognizes that most high school students have probably never tackled a university library.

Another professor of the program, William Belk, said students participating in the seminars can either get credit to go toward completing their majors or toward fulfilling general education requirements.

Belk, a visiting lecturer at UNLV, will teach the "Effective Public Speaking" seminar. He plans on approaching the subject from a classical view, using Greek theory as the basis for his class.

His students will then organize their arguments and present their opinions, he said.

Academic coordinator and UNLV German professor Daniel Villanueva, who will teach "The Global Dance," said gifted high school students should jump at the chance to take classes with the Honors College this summer.

Villanueva also hopes the small size of the seminars -- each class is limited to 15 students -- will be an advantage to those enrolled.

"There is excellent attention to each student's individual interests and educational goals," he said.