It’s that time of year when the weather is cold and dreary, when our seniors are pushing through their last few months till they graduate, and when our sophomores are thinking more than ever about college. So, in other terms, it’s a perfect time to talk about summer and college – or Noble Schools’ Summer of A Lifetime (SOL) program!

If you haven’t heard of it, the Summer of a Lifetime program supports hundreds of high-achieving, low-income students from across Noble to participate in summer academic enrichment programs at colleges and universities nationwide. This program is proven to forever influence the trajectory of our students’ lives.

Our data show that Summer of A Lifetime alumni are graduating college at a 60% higher rate than the national average of all Americans, and 5X the rate of low-income students nationally. For many students who take part, the SOL experience is full of “firsts,” and as a result, they return with a deeper understanding of who they are, as well as more confidence and focus to thrive in high school and get ready for college. For both the student and their family, the experience of attending college becomes a reality rather than simply a concept. After their SOL experience, participants are asking themselves “when” rather than “if” they will attend college.

At Pritzker College Prep, we just finished the SOL application process for this year. Our next step is to go through the applications and match our sophomores to a school/program based on their career interests. Noble fundraises all the money needed to send our students off to college over the summer with zero to little cost. This year, we are projected to send our 10,000th student off to Summer of a Lifetime!

Are You A Noble Alum or Staff Member?

Early bird registration ends on Feb 10! Open to Noble alumni and staff only. Get your tickets now:

If you’re curious about how Pritzker College Prep students have been impacted by the Summer of A Lifetime program, look no further than these two stories from juniors Jennifer Salinas and Xitlally Estanquero Llamas:

Jennifer attended Boston College last summer and took a course in Business Leadership. While there, she worked on a group project with her classmates about creating a business plan as well as its logo design. She said she also met some new friends as well from different parts of the States.

She said the hardest adjustments was being homesick and the time zone change.

Overall, this Summer of A Lifetime opportunity helped Jennifer decide that she wants to go to school for Business Finance. She learned in school that business has many different aspects, but the one that interested her most was the finance part of it.

Xitlally attended Harvard University last summer and took a Neuropsychology course.

“The most interesting thing I learned was that people with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) can have different medical conditions, one alter* can have diabetes while the rest do not,” Xitally said, “Topics that intimidated me were having full knowledge of the brain and knowing each part of it. I dealt with this intimidation by asking questions and doing my own research. I am excited to learn about past traumas and how they affect the future of the victim.”

Xitlally was homesick at first, she said, but she realized she would be just fine without her family for a few weeks and quickly made new friends!

*Alternate personalities

Xitlally said that her Summer of A Lifetime experience helped her conclude that she has great time management skills, will be ok living away from home, and can have fun experiences with friends!

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