High school students participating in FOCUS are led by Honors College students, who have applied to be either seminar leaders or group leaders. Each day brings a new set of activities for the students, such as theatre, dancing, art, creative writing and this year brought a new activity: cooking.
FOCUS program mimics college experience
They were scattered throughout the yard of the French House, smoothing paper over unique surfaces of brick and stone. With wax crayons and chalk, they created colored rubbings on white paper, which would become a background to their latest art project.
These are the high school sophomores participating in LSU’s FOCUS, or Focusing on College and Unlimited Success, program. FOCUS is a program within the Honors College that concentrates on arts and humanities, along with science over a two-week period.
Many of the students participating in FOCUS don’t have an arts program at their school. Some of them are on a middle ground with the idea of college—they don’t think it’s for them or they are afraid of not getting accepted.
“FOCUS is supposed to mimic a college experience,” said Mark Dochterman, student activities coordinator for the Honors College. “So the application is similar to a college application.”
Dochterman said the application involves several short essays, which help FOCUS leaders get a feel for the student.
“It’s more of a fit-type of thing, more than a set criteria,” Dochterman said. “We are looking for students that have promise.”
This year there were 70 applicants, increased from last year’s 40. Proper funding leaves room for about 30 students. During the weeks of FOCUS, which usually takes place the last two weeks of July, the admitted students get to stay in dorms on-campus, providing them a greater college experience.
The students are lead by students in the Honors College, which have applied to be leaders, either seminar leaders or group leaders. The seminar leaders are responsible for planning dailyworkshops, while the group leaders serve as mentors for the high school students.
Each day brings a new set of activities for the students, such as theatre, dancing, art, creative writing, and science experiments this year brought a new activity: cooking.
“They learned how to read a recipe, along with basic cooking terminology and styles,” Dochterman said. “They learned a few recipes and even cooked some meals.”
The first one was a traditional southern meal of jambalaya, salad and sweet tea. However, the second meal was pork, along with snow peas and ceviche—marinated raw seafood.
“Since they made the food, they were more open to trying it,” he said. “You know when you’re cooking a meal with your family and everyone is helping out? It felt like that.”
For the art class, each day presented a new project for the students. One day they sketched the students in the dance class and then painted the drawings; the next day they used objects in nature, such as leaves and branches, to create an abstract piece.
“The best part of this is discovering that the kids have huge creative ability,” said art seminar leader Ashley Leblanc, a painting and drawing junior. “They are more creative than they’ve been given credit for.”
Although the high school students participate in all of the FOCUS areas, they get to choose one area to concentrate on, much like picking a college major. They work one-on-one with a FOCUS leader to develop a project based around their “major” or “focus.” Each student then presents their project on Final FOCUS Friday, for their families.
This year’s FOCUS program was funded by The Special Children’s Foundation and Shell Oil.
Holly A. Phillips | Editor | Office of Communications & University Relations
August 2010
