Sacramento State’s Academic Talent Search program is offering over 100 summer classes for middle school and high school students, giving them the chance to take specialized and accelerated-learning classes in a collegiate environment.

The academic talent search has been serving students in the greater Sacramento area for 27 years.

To qualify, students must currently be in sixth to ninth grade levels and have taken the academic talent search Qualifying Exam.

Held at Sac State, the classes will give students the opportunity to learn about traditional subjects, such as math, science and English.

Specialized classes that are traditionally not offered in middle and high schools are also available to students. These classes include cartooning, architecture and money management.

Classes are held in Sac State classrooms throughout the campus, said Terry Thomas, executive director for the Academic Talent Search Program.

Though Thomas does not teach any of the classes within the summer programs, he is a professor in the College of Education on campus.

“I’ve been administrating. The thrill for me is to visit the classes and see what they are doing,” Thomas said.

The summer classes are taught by a wide variety of people, including Sac State and community college professors, local high school and middle school teachers and even experts from localized fields called “turned-on professionals,” Thomas said.

“It’s unlike a traditional school environment and the kids really thrive on that; they want to be there,” Thomas said.

Courses taught by the turned-on professionals are experts in their fields. These courses include money management classes, taught by a representative from The Golden 1 Credit Union; acting workshops provided by Sacramento’s B-Street Theatre; and hip-hop and break dancing classes that are offered courtesy of Step-1 Dance Studio and Studio T Urban Dance Academy.

Linda Matheson, apparel marketing and design professor at Sac State, said the program helps students by offering distinctive courses.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity. I think (students) should take advantage of all the opportunities available to them,” Matheson said.

Senior child development major Sonia Cabrera said the program’s variety of classes will help to keep kids interested in school.

“It’s a good program. It gives kids an opportunity to find what they are interested in,” Cabrera said. “It offers diverse courses for diverse interests.”

Cabrera said another positive aspect of the program is the fact that it is set up in a college campus.

“(Students) will be exposed to the college life,” Cabrera said. “Kids not exposed to a college environment might not be motivated to go and giving them a good experience on campus will hopefully encourage them to attend college later.”

And the rate of students who go on to attend college is high, Thomas said.

The program is evaluated every year by teachers, parents and students and follow-up studies are done to track the progress of students through what is called the “12-year Longitudinal Study.” The study tracks students through questionnaires that are sent out in five-year intervals.

The questionnaires have provided a wealth of information about the progress of the students involved in the academic talent search, specifically two key pieces of information, Thomas said.

The first is that 95 to 98 percent of students who were involved in the program went on to attend college, and the second is that most students were going for degrees in the areas that they had studied in the academic talent search summer programs.

The students who participate in the summer program tend to be advanced students, Thomas said, and go on to work in a variety of desired fields, becoming highly productive individuals. Often they become teachers and professors themselves, Thomas said.

Monique Garrett, who took classes during her middle school years, recognizes the program as having a major part in her success today.

“The ATS program had a big influence on my life,” Garrett said. “I still remember the feeling I had when I received the acceptance letter in the mail. I think it was that feeling, and the experience I took away from the program, that helped me truly understand what success felt like.”

Garrett said the program helped her stay on track during high school. She was the first in her family to graduate from college, something she strongly attributes to the influence of the program.

Thomas said one of the best parts of being involved in the program was receiving letters and e-mails from former students who recognized the program for having a big impact on their lives.

“It makes me very proud to know that we can have that kind of an impact,” Thomas said.

The process to become involved in the program begins when representatives of the program visit schools throughout the Sacramento region, reaching an estimated 300 schools, Thomas said.

At the schools, the representatives administer the exam, called the Abilities test, to students who will be scored on their verbal and mathematics skills.

The test is very much like the SAT, Thomas said, and is designed for older college students. Students are not tested on what they already know; rather, it is a test to determine their abilities to reason.

Once the tests are in and graded, the scores are sent to the students, along with a catalog that lists which classes are available during the summer program. Scores show the students’ abilities in only two categories: math and verbal skills.

Students must apply to the courses which interest them and submit their application. Once they are accepted, they are given specific information about the class or classes they will take.

For more information on the program, visit edweb.csus.edu/Projects/ats.

Isela Reyes can be reached at [email protected].