Incoming students get a glimpse of campus life, local culture

The Newcomb-Tulane College Summer Experience offers incoming first-year students a first look at life on campus, while ensuring that they develop the skills necessary for success within Tulane classrooms.

Curated by Robin Hayes, executive assistant to Dean James MacLaren at Newcomb-Tulane College, and hosted by the Center for Academic Equity, the program invited 16 incoming first-year students to spend five weeks on Tulane’s campus prior to their fall orientation.

Previous participants in the summer experience were primarily students enrolled in the College Track program.

“This year, we are opening the program up to students of color, LGBTQ students and first generation college students.”

— Paula Booke, associate director of the Center for Academic Equity

“This year, we are opening the program up to students of color, LGBTQ students and first-generation college students — undergraduates with parents who did not obtain four-year college degrees,” said Paula Booke, associate director of the Center for Academic Equity.

The experience helps students navigate the complexities of transitioning into college life by providing a close-knit community for support.

“They’ll have friends that they will see and recognize from the program, and they will know offices on campus that will be crucial to their success,” said Booke.

“Our goal is to stimulate early engagement in academic excellence,” she said, noting that the students are enrolled in several engaging courses and additional workshops in math and chemistry.

One of those courses is “Beyond Neutral Ground,” a class taught by Rebecca Mark, director of the Center for Academic Equity. Mark’s course introduces participants to the people and places that preserve local culture via excursions to sites around Greater New Orleans.

While discussing the evolution of the city’s thriving cultural landscape, the students embarked on a jazz history tour with musicologist Michael White and explored the Historic New Orleans Collection with history professor Emily Clark.

The group also boarded the Steamboat Natchez to examine the river’s historical impact with Rebecca Snedeker, executive director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South.

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