Miami University is working to establish a bridge for high school students interested in attending.
President David Hodge said the program, called Bridges, now in its third year, offers minority high school seniors a 24-hour collegiate experience.
More than 110 high schools in the greater Columbus, Toledo, Dayton and Cincinnati areas had students that took part in the program during Nov. 9-10.
Robert Seggerson, guidance counselor at Lima Central Catholic High School (LCC) in Lima said this initiative is necessary for Miami to compete nationwide.
"All colleges are making a concerted effort to recruit minority students," Seggerson said. "It is important to get these students that are academically talented on college campuses early."
Seggerson said when he received information in the mail about the Bridges program, he had an excellent candidate in mind and the first student from his high school to apply to the Bridges program was accepted.
Daniela Pierre, a senior at LCC, had not even considered Miami as a choice in her college search until learning more about the Bridges program.
Pierre said that Seggerson thought the program would be beneficial to her and that if she decides to attend Miami she, along with the other participants of the program, would receive scholarship money each year.
According to the Miami University Web site, each student that enrolls at Miami after completing the Bridges program can receive $4,000 per year as well as having the $45 application fee waived.
Pierre said the program began with a general speaker and a lot of student-hosted programs. Students were shown around campus and housed in the dorms, and Pierre said there were also workshops about the classes offered at Miami, with students receiving help on the application process.
"I really liked the program and now Miami is my number one choice," Pierre said.
Pierre has already completed and mailed her application to Miami.
Originally from Chile, Pierre was surprised at the diversity she saw at Miami.
"It was so interesting and there was a lot of variety of people, there was even a girl from my hometown in Chile," Pierre said.
Hodge is very enthusiastic about the potential the Bridges program has to recruit more diverse students to Miami.
"If Miami is successful in attracting these students to Miami, we will have a great class and a much more diverse class next year than this year," Hodge said.
The Bridges program in November was the most successful Miami has had to date, Hodge said. Hodge said there were more than 600 applications for the program and Miami had the opportunity to bring nearly 200 students to campus.
"It was all a result of tremendous efforts in admissions and other outreach efforts ... we had a day of panic trying to figure out what to do with so many applicants," Hodge said.
Seggerson said that the minority representation at his high school has been increasing a lot and in the years to come, the number of candidates at LCC to apply to the Bridges program will increase.
