Talent Development celebrates 40 years

04/02/08 - For 40 years the Talent Development program has provided students from poor backgrounds and struggling high schools a shot at attending the University of Rhode Island.The program reaches about 18 high schools and middle schools in Rhode Island and follows students' progress from their acceptance into the program until their graduation from URI.

The program came to fruition after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Frank Forleo, assistant director for admissions in the Talent Development Program at URI, has been with the program for 33 years and remembers program co-founders Arthur L. Hardge and Leo DiMaio well.

Hardge sat beside King in a jail cell during the Civil Rights Movement and Forleo said that the program would not be what it is today without the founders' dedication.

"If Dr. King hadn't been killed 40 years ago, there would have never been a Talent Development program because it was his death that pushed the state of Rhode Island to create Talent Development as an opportunity for people who weren't getting an opportunity," Forleo, who is a URI alumnus, said.

The program has grown from just 16 students in its first year to more than 500 accepted students this year, Forleo said. Though the bulk of the program caters to black and Hispanic students, which comprise about 60 to 65 percent of accepted students. The program is also composed of 25 percent Asians and 10 percent disadvantaged white students, with the remainder being Native American students.

Forleo said one focus the program has when recruiting students is trying to look past low SAT scores, which he said have negative socioeconomic standards.

Coordinators within the TD program look for students who may have scored lower than the required standards to get into colleges, and work with students in the "C to C-+ range" to better their grades before entering into higher education.

"The idea that the program has grown, it's phenomenal," Forleo said. "I don't think Reverend [Hardge] or Mr. DiMaio, if they were here with us today, would believe the growth it's experienced."

He added that the job of the Talent Development program is far from over.

"The struggle continues for opportunity, for education and for jobs," he said. "This can be a big place if you arrive here thinking you won't be successful."

Within the Talent Development program is the Guaranteed Admissions Program, whose 20th anniversary is also this week. The Talent Development program took over the administration of GAP in 2004, a year before Joanna Ravello, assistant director for Providence Talent Development programs at URI, came on board with five years of experience.

The GAP program works with students from middle school to high school at the same urban schools the Talent Development program works with, including Central Falls Senior High School, Hope High School in Providence and Charles E. Shea Senior High School in Pawtucket.

"We have parallel tracks," Ravello said of the two programs.

Her job with the Talent Development program also obligates her to serve as the assistant director of GAP, and said the biggest problem the program faces is funding, which she said she imagines has not changed within the past two decades.

"We have to make sure we have adequate staff and we can support students academically and provide enrichment opportunities," she said.

Some of these opportunities include Rhode Island Department of Transportation-funded activities surrounding civil engineering education called TRAC PAC, and "field trips" to places of educational value, such as museums.

"These are all just to groom them now and get them ready for college," Ravello said. "This is very much what our track is, exposing them to people, ideas and opportunities they wouldn't meet otherwise."

The GAP encompasses an entire summer, though students can elect to take only one of the two-week plans.

The first of the two is Bridges, where students learn leadership skills while partnered with mentors from URI. Ravello said this could include community service work or team-building exercises.

"This part is all about giving back to your community and around being a better you," she said. "It's a lot about giving back and there's more to the experience than just living it or taking it [for granted]."

The second half is Academy, where the criteria are academically based, bringing science and math into focus.

After these programs have been completed, students can sign a contract in their sophomore year, along with a legal guardian, high school principal and Dean of Admission Cynthia Bonn, to complete their academic workload and be guaranteed admission into URI. This is contingent upon the student receiving a B- or better average after the program's completion, and maintaining this until their acceptance into URI.

Along with this, students have the opportunity to participate in a weekend meeting with the university in the spring of their freshman and sophomore years, and the fall of their junior and senior years.

"Here, they realize that their experiences coming from Hope High School, or from Shea, often it's very similar to the experiences of our college students," Ravello said. "That makes it so much more real for them than me standing up there doing a presentation on Talent Development."

Forleo said he felt this moment to be pivotal in a student's experience with college, and recalled his first time stepping foot on URI's campus his freshman year of high school.

"That's a very bold statement to a kid," he said. "I remember my first time and it was something that really stayed with me, and I do think it's the same for the GAP kids.