Project ExCEL Coordinator Shélynn Riel-Osorio (left) teaches Summer Pre-College Seminar to ExCEL and PEP students.
This fall, RIC’s Project ExCEL (Excellence in College for English Learners) will partner with PEP (Preparatory Enrollment Program) to ensure the successful transition of English learners from high school to Rhode Island College.
Established in 2013, Project ExCEL was created for high-achieving bilingual students who were coming out of high school without enough English literature credits to enter a university or college.
“Some of these students arrive in the United States during their freshman year in high school and others arrive as recently as their senior year,” explained Project ExCEL Coordinator Shélynn Riel-Osorio ’12, M.Ed. ’13.
“In their native countries they may be high performers in all their other subjects,” she said. “But when they come to the United States to attend high school they must substitute the standard English literature courses with ESL courses.”
By the time they graduate high school, many highly capable, literate and academically talented bilinguals do not have all the mainstream English courses required for admission to a four-year college or university.
Project ExCEL gives them the opportunity to pursue a degree at Rhode Island College by granting them one-year conditional admission. Full admission is contingent upon their participation in Project ExCEL and on maintaining a minimum grade of C+ in their ExCEL courses: a 4-credit course in the fall, covering reading, writing and college readiness strategies; and a 1-credit seminar in the spring.
In addition, Project ExCEL students will now be required to participate in the PEP program, which consists of
- A Summer Pre-College Seminar in math and writing led by college faculty.
- A First Year Experience Seminar that provides information on programs and majors at the college and strategies to navigate the first year of college.
- An individual advisement program in which students meet with a PEP advisor to review their fall course schedules and set goals for the fall semester.
In the fall and spring semesters, students engage in PEP’s
- Monthly individual advisement meetings with PEP advisors to discuss students’ academic progress.
- Group workshops that expose students to the academic resources and support services available at RIC.
- College Major Exploration Series during Wednesday Free Periods, where faculty from a variety of academic departments explain college majors and career opportunities.
Shélynn Riel-Osorio
Not only will this partnership benefit Project ExCEL students, said Riel-Osorio, there are many PEP students who will be exposed to the Project ExCEL program who could benefit from its content. “We can’t force them to take part in Project ExCEL but we do offer it to them as an option,” she said.
“PEP students are often English learners themselves,” she explained, “but they don’t want to self-identify as such. Often there’s a stigma attached to being an English learner, and a lot of students want to remove themselves from that title. I tell them: Once you’re learning a language, you’re learning that language for life, and that is something to be celebrated.”
For more information on Project ExCEL, contact Shélynn Riel-Osorio at srielosorio@ric.edu.
