LEDA: An Incredible Opportunity

By: Sydney Mantell and Chaltu Musse, JIF '14, LEDA cohort 11

Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) is an organization based out of New York, New York that is committed to helping high achieving students from low income backgrounds. LEDA Scholars attend top universities around the country thanks to the organization’s assistance with the college application process. The bulk of LEDA’s support comes from the 7 week long Summer Institute that takes place on Princeton University’s campus. The 100 scholars take classes, go on college trips, take practice ACTs and SATs, have one-on-one meetings with their counselors, and relax around Princeton’s campus. Aside from the astounding benefits of attending a rigorous college-prep program, LEDA is committed to creating a community that motivates and inspires scholars to reach their full potential.

LEDA Cohort 11

Alright, now that I’ve gotten the corny run-of-the-mill praise out of the way, allow me to share some of my best experiences at LEDA this summer, as they will give prospective applicants a real glimpse at life at Princeton for seven weeks.

Week 1: Woah why does it rain so much in Jersey???

The day after we arrived from all over the country, at 7am sharp, jetlag game strong, we all took a full ACT/SAT test. The bright side to this painful endeavor was we got our scores back by Tuesday: the first day of ACT/SAT prep classes! Yay!

LEDA works with Advantage Testing to provide some of the top ACT and SAT tutors in the country. ACT/SAT prep courses were 5 hours long on Tuesdays and Thursdays. ACT prep was hands-down, without a doubt, my favorite class at LEDA. The long hours seemed daunting at first, but the frequent dance breaks and the coveted 10-minute naps eased the load. Not only did scores jump significantly, in some cases 9 composite points on the ACT, but the instructors were kind, hilarious, down-to-earth, and willing to guide us step-by-step to our desired scores.

My favorite memory of ACT class was writing the “Quote of the Day” on the chalkboard each day. Each quote was a reflection of the amazing time I was having at LEDA, and the quality of the intensive course and instructor (mine was John Roberts). My favorites are:

“If I took an ACT class, but John Roberts wasn’t my teacher… did I really take an ACT class?” - Concerned Student

and

“Did I visit Johns Hopkins yesterday… or Johns Roberts?”

and lastly…

“Matilda on Broadway was intellectually stimulating and lit. It was lit.”

John Roberts working his magic next to the Teletubbies Quote of the Day

Week 2: I really want to go to Nassau, but this bed is taunting me. Decisions decisions.

Don’t get it twisted! LEDA was fun, but it was hard. Between Aspects of Leadership, College Guidance, College Writing, ACT/SAT Prep, and the resulting unholy mounds of homework, there were very few hours of leisure. However, the rigor of the curriculum definitely prepares scholars for the rigor of college courses and the demands of student life at a top-tier school.

Aspects of Leadership: This is the main course at LEDA, and it takes about 16 hours a week. Aspects of Leadership was an entirely new academic experience for me. Coming from an IB school, I’m used to very structured seminars with rubrics that strictly align with the material tested on the IB test. I’m accustomed to group presentations and role-play assignments limited by the large class sizes. Aspects of Leadership turned around everything I was used to and exposed me to a new way of learning. The discussions were student-led, the role-plays were interesting, thought-provoking, and encouraged a questioning of implicit bias, the class sizes were neither awkwardly tiny nor distractingly big, and the facilitators did just that: facilitate. The students discussed values and ideas that intrigued them, and the facilitators encouraged open-mindedness and allowed scholars to learn from one another. The curriculum was based on relevant issues, and promoted social awareness. Some of the topics covered over the seven weeks were:

• The increasing wealth gap
• Homelessness, drug recovery, and mass incarceration
• Prominent leaders in history and their philosophies
• The Palestinian-Israeli conflict
• The Ukraine Crisis
• The Black Lives Matter movement
• The American Feminist Movement
• The US political process

These are just a few of the topics we covered, and with 16 hours of instruction a week, topics were covered in-depth.

Week 3: But….how will I eat my roast-beef sandwich with no mayo?

Every Wednesday, scholars rushed into the Forbes College lobby, joined their “trip clusters,” and grabbed their roast beef/turkey/veggie sandwich boxes: It’s time for another college trip!

During the course of LEDA, we visited 8 colleges and universities on the East coast:

• Yale and Wesleyan
• Swarthmore and University of Pennsylvania

• 

  Ben Frank just chillin at Penn

  Columbia and Barnard
• Johns Hopkins and Georgetown

Typically, we visited 2 colleges in a day, and had both a tour guide and a sit-down information session at each school. My favorite college trip was definitely the trip to Columbia and Barnard, where, afterwards, we watched Matilda on Broadway. Visiting New York for the first time was a fantastic experience, and aside from the creepy Statue-of-Liberty guy in Times Square, it was a day full of fun.

Week 4: It’s all about reflection and analysis, people.

Another class that all scholars take over the summer is College Writing. The class actually starts before you set foot on Princeton’s campus because of your “diagnostic essay” based on the texts that LEDA sends you upon your acceptance into the program. Last summer, our essays were about the concepts of racial identity and cross-cultural relations, two themes that kept coming up throughout the summer, especially in writing class. During our 7 weeks at Princeton, we wrote 3 essays total with two different drafts each, plus a research presentation. So that’s basically one essay per week. The timeline was stressful, especially since LEDA didn’t consider fixing grammatical mistakes or rearranging sentences as revision. One of the best part of the process, though, was that we got feedback from our writing instructor on everything we wrote. We also had weekly meetings with them to go over our essays and discuss ways to make them better. The instructors were professors at top tier universities like Yale, so they definitely knew what they were talking about. The actual class was about 4 hours each week and definitely benefited out writing abilities.

Week 5: You need a balanced list. You need a balanced list. You need a balanced list.

We heard those words at least 500 times over the summer. I’m not exaggerating. College Guidance was a huge part of LEDA because getting into a selective college or university is the ultimate goal. Through classes and one-on-one meetings with our College Guidance counselors, we learned a ton about the application process and what kind of school we really wanted.

In class, we had lessons over topics like the Common Application, financial aid, interviews, and most importantly, fit factors. We were constantly asked questions about what kind of school we saw ourselves at next year, whether it was big, small, in an urban area, in a rural area, a research university, a liberal arts college, one that had public transportation available, one that had a great dance program, one that loves supporting their football team, or any other fit factor you can imagine. Once we made a list of all our preferences, our College Guidance counselors gave us schools to research. In our meetings with them, we would discuss the pros and cons of each one. Then, once we had a list of colleges that we liked, we narrowed them down and created our balanced list of 2-3 likely schools, 4-5 challenge schools, and 3-4 reach schools. That way, we were challenging ourselves without applying to all eight Ivies.

Week 6: Alright, I’m totally loving all of this homework, but when can I relax?

Never. I’m just kidding, don’t worry. While it might seem like the mountain of essays, readings for Aspects, college research, and high school summer homework is never-ending, there’s still time to have fun during LEDA. As long as you balance your time and don’t procrastinate too much, your homework will get done, I promise.

The Purpetrators, quite possibly the best olympics team in LEDA history

LEDA organizes events for Scholars that are both voluntary and mandatory. We had the opportunity to go play basketball and/or go swimming at Princeton’s rec center on the weekend, for example. There were also events organized by the Resident Mentors like Spa Night and the infamous Foosball Tournament. Other, more structured events like the LEDA Olympics and Community Meetings were required for Scholars, but they ended up being great opportunities for us to take a break from all the homework and have fun with our cohort members. We also had weekly froyo outings with Ms. Breger, the Executive Director of LEDA. We got to learn more about the organization while stuffing our face with as much frozen yogurt as we possibly could.

Week 7: Do I really have to leave???

As the LEDA Summer winds down, we all have to face the fact that 7 weeks does not mean “forever.” Don’t get me wrong, we were still extremely busy with classes which didn’t really give us time to think about the fact we would be leaving all of the people we had become so close with over the summer. We all learned so much about each other’s lives and cultures back home, wherever that home may be in the United States. LEDA works to build a community of scholars, and their goal is definitely accomplished during the Summer Institute. I met some of my best friends at Princeton and thanks to Facebook, we haven’t really lost touch.

FROYO!

“LEDA puts the ‘L’ in ‘lit’.” -Crystal Perez, Cohort 11

There is no better way to sum it up.

So, sounds amazing, right? Well, if you’re a high school Junior in the top 10% of the class at a public high school, you should apply! LEDA looks at qualities like academic performance, leadership potential, integrity, intellectual curiosity, and a strong character overall. While being a first generation college student and having strong test scores are advantages, they are not required to attend the LEDA Summer Institute. If all of these things sound like you, apply! The LEDA Cohort 12 application is due December 11, 2015 and is available at www.ledascholars.org.