For the high school student who’s on the college track preparing for the college experience becomes a full-time job that involves nearly everyone in the student’s sphere. Guidance counselors check the curriculum boxes. Teachers teach and re-teach. Parents read brochures and fill out forms. And the student writes essays, collects community service hours and hunches over desks taking standardized tests.

One organization can help high school students prepare for college in another way. Blueprint offers students a variety of summer programs that immerse them in the college environment long before they move into their dorm room or experience their first rush week.

Blueprint recognizes students’ unique backgrounds, strengths, personalities, goals, and challenges and provides them with a wide range of activities, opportunities and information, says Keith Cantrell, an enrollment manager at Blueprint. “College demands new academic skills. Our program includes content to enhance or develop academic, social, and soft skills and the opportunity to explore different academic areas and majors and best practices to be successful while still in high school,” says Cantrell.

The aim of Blueprint summer programs is to guide and support students through the transition from high school to college by allowing them to explore their future career interests in an experiential, low-stress classroom in a city that is new to them, one that they learn to navigate safely and responsibly. Blueprint also offers help to students in keeping peace with a roommate.

The Saturday Series program, offered at Loyola University, Chicago and Marymount Manhattan College in NYC, exclusively covers the college and career success curriculum spread out over seven Saturdays.

Blueprint’s four-day summer intensive program, offered at Texas A&M and California State Fullerton, gives students a taste of college life by allowing them to live on campus, eat in dining halls, and participate in evening activities. Blueprint’s pre-college summer immersion takes the college experience further by allowing students to live on campus for up to two weeks. Students can take the pre-college summer immersion program at Lehigh University; University of Florida; University of Maryland; University of Minnesota; University of North Carolina; and University of California, Los Angeles.

Based out of Ashville, North Carolina and in its tenth year, Blueprint’s three programs are:

• Saturday Series

• Pre-College Four-Day Summer Intensive

• Pre-College Summer Immersion

All three programs are built on Blueprint’s college and career success curriculum, which is broken into two sections.

The first section, practical knowledge and skill development, allows students to explore post-secondary options like community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, trade school programs, certification programs, and apprenticeships. They also learn about:

• paying for college

• choosing a major or career

• writing a resume

• acing a job interview

In the soft skills knowledge and development section students are taught about skills employers looking for, as well as those necessary for living a healthy and independent life. They also learn:

• self-management

• time management

• goal setting

• communication

• problem solving

• critical thinking

• resource use

“Our well-rounded program focuses on student empowerment and understanding the transitions from high school to college and the real world…Our programs are built on diversity and experiential learning techniques with the goal of not just being successful in college, but successful in life, while having fun at the same time,” says Cantrell.

In both the four-day intensive program and the pre-college summer immersion program students must choose to explore two of the following four courses:

• behavioral science

• business

• engineering

• medicine

Behavioral science students are taught that a degree in this field serves as a solid foundation for post-graduate studies in law, business, medicine, and other fields. They also are educated about the difference between counseling, social work, social and human services, and other behavioral science related professions. “We review the careers in the field, what the job looks like, what the educational requirements are, and the income potential for the field,” says Cantrell. This course paints a realistic picture of the profession and teaches students about the settings in which counselors, social workers, therapists, and psychiatrists work. 

The business course provides students with an overview of general business skills and provides a glimpse of the options available to those who earn a business degree. It’s geared to those who wish to own or manage a business or work in business. Through five business specialties, students learn to turn a great idea into a business, explore social media and its role in business branding and marketing, work in human resources, and manage athletes.

While immersed in Blueprint’s engineering course, students explore five of the most popular specialties within the engineering field and dive into projects that force them to apply engineering skills. Students examine the concepts used in building structures like bridges and tunnels, explore medical technologies that help the injured and disabled, learn rocket science, and discover a variety of engineering related professions.

The program concentrates on:

• civil engineering

• biomedical engineering

• environmental engineering

• petroleum engineering

• aerospace engineering

The medicine course rounds out Blueprint’s four courses and introduces students to some of the most highly sought professions within the field. Students explore various careers within the medical field, participate in hands on learning of basic medical skills and procedures, become familiar with medical support and health care related professions. Nursing, allied health support, physical therapy, physician and forensics are some of the concentrations in the medicine program.

Like the actual college experience, Blueprint’s summer program allows for a certain amount of downtime. To give students the sense that they’re part of a larger community, they are free to explore the campus and enjoy evening activities, both of which demonstrate the importance being engaged outside the classroom.

Because Blueprint is a third party and not associated with the campuses on which its summer programs are offered, Blueprint does not offer scholarships. However, there are a number of options to help students fund their participation. “We offer payment plans that can be spread out to monthly payments following the deposit payment to make the program more affordable for our families. We also partner with many non-profit foundations that have funds available to assist in sending students to the programs,” says Cantrell. •