Some of the incoming freshmen from Michigan were given an opportunity to help start off their year with the Determined Dawg Scholar Academy.
The program began earlier this summer. Incoming freshmen were sent an invitation to participate. The program allowed the participants to become more familiar with life on campus and learn a routine for what college life looks like as they begin.
Professional golf management freshman Christian Duhrkoff was one of the freshmen who was given an invite. Duhrkoff’s experience with the program gave him an extra boost.
“I think, even if you know you don’t have to do it, I think it’s really nice to get to experience that. I couldn’t envision the college experience before,” Duhrkoff said. “You know, everyone gets there in the fall and feel like with our university class, I’m pretty sure all freshmen have to take one of those seminar classes, so we are kind of ahead of the game.”
In addition to the seminar class, students were also able to learn study skills, take a math course, take a reading course and were able to take field trips to have more hands-on experiences.
Incoming freshmen weren’t the only students who were able to participate in the program. The program also had pack leaders, who were students in charge of the groups and helped lead them throughout the day. Nursing junior Tyrese Beedle was a pack leader who got hired while at another job.
“I also worked the overnight shift at McDonald’s, and normally the guy at the first window is, like, kind of rude, and I was put there for like a minute, and our boss, Manny, would have was a regular at like, 12:30, 1:00,” Beedle said. “ And one night he had stopped me, and he was like, ‘hey man like, I just gotta say great customer service. And he was like, ‘Do you go to Ferris?’, and we just got to talking. And he said, ‘I’m actually starting with this program, would you be interested?’”
Beedle found the experience to be helpful in his development of leadership skills, as he was able to lead the incoming freshmen through different activities as well as help them with their classes when needed.
Program leader Emmanuel Ogua started his role with the program after a grant was given to help the incoming freshman who needed extra support. Ogua went through the application process and helped work on the schedule.”
“So, after the application period, I actually reached out and called all of the participants myself, and did a phone interview with them and basically asked them if they were ready to commit, four weeks out of their summer to get this amazing opportunity for themselves,” Ogua said. “You get nine credits that you get to basically take in four weeks to catch up, to get you where you need to be. But we also did Saturday excursions in which we went to, Grand Rapids for white caps, game Mount Pleasant for Native American pow wow. We also did some local stuff, like the Mecosta County Fair. So we were basically doing something every single day with also a mandatory, mandatory study hall that they had to do every night from seven to 9pm in order to get ready for the next day.”
Ogua hopes that as the year progresses, the freshman who took the course will have a better understanding of the college experience. Ogua also hopes that as the year progresses and they begin to look for more incoming freshmen to be part of the program for next year, they will be able to have more participants.