Honors College, Brewer High team up on admissions

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The University of Maine Honors College has teamed up with Brewer High School to create a program that will automatically grant admission to the college for any honors graduate from the high school.

The program, launched by Brewer High School Director of Instruction Julie Hackett, is an attempt to familiarize talented students with innovative, individual experiences similar to those they may encounter at UMaine in the Honors College.

Students must complete an independent project and work closely with a mentor in order to graduate from Brewer with honors.

The university has approved the curriculum that Brewer High School has mapped out for its honors students.

“One of the things the program does is for a particular group of students, it encourages them to think about the university as an alternative,” said Charlie Slavin, dean of the Honors College.

“We want to encourage students to come to the university because we think what we have here at the university is a good thing,” he said.

Specifically, the Honors College hopes that the local program will result in an increase in local interest in the University.

The new honors program at Brewer is, according to Slavin, a win-win situation.

“It enables Brewer to provide something extra for their students, and it enables us to better identify those students who are a good fit for the Honors College,” he said.

This does not mean it will be the only way for a student at Brewer to gain acceptance to the Honors College.

Applications for students who do not graduate from Brewer’s honors program will still be accepted.

It is possible that in the future, such programs will be created for other high schools as well, in which case an acceptable curriculum would be worked out on a school-by-school basis.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” said Slavin.

Regardless of what happens in the future, students at Brewer can now look forward to an enriching curriculum that will better prepare them for places like the Honors College.

The Honors College can look forward to accepting students they know to be motivated.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2006, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.