{"id":69945,"date":"2013-11-08T09:55:19","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T14:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=69945"},"modified":"2021-02-09T17:09:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:09:14","slug":"president-spencer-crimson-summer-academy-at-harvard-10-year-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/11\/08\/president-spencer-crimson-summer-academy-at-harvard-10-year-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard media report on President Spencer, ‘godmother’ of Crimson Summer Academy, speaking at anniversary event"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>

President Clayton Spencer speaks at the 10th anniversary of Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy on Oct. 30, 2013. (Rose Lincoln\/Harvard)<\/p><\/div>\n

President Clayton Spencer returned to Harvard in October to reflect on a program she helped bring to life 10 years ago that draws local high-achieving, economically disadvantaged students to study at Harvard for six weeks each summer.<\/p>\n

Harvard Crimson<\/em> reporter Meg Bernhard notes that Spencer, former vice president for policy at Harvard, is often referred to as “the godmother” of Crimson Summer Academy.<\/p>\n

The academy, she writes, provides students from low-income families “the opportunity to channel their academic ambitions and achieve their goals of attending four-year universities.”<\/p>\n

Spencer says that the goal of the academy “is all about aligning the students\u2019 ambition with opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A related story in the Harvard Gazette<\/em> quotes Bates student Andria Bhagwandeen ’15 of Boston, an alumna of the academy, who describes the moment when she knew she’d have to step up her academic game to attend college.<\/p>\n

\"Andria<\/a>

Andria Bhagwandeen ’15 of Boston is an alumna of the Crimson Summer Academy at Harvard. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

She’d been praised as \u201cone of the best writers\u201d in high school, but when Bhagwandeen arrived at the the Crimson Academy, she failed her first essay assignment three times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that moment I realized how important CSA became to me in…shaping my academics. Quite honestly, I don\u2019t know where I would have ended up if I didn\u2019t come to CSA. It really paved a whole new way for me to go, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m really thankful for.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are three other Crimson Academy alumni now at Bates, and one graduated in 2013. And alumnus Ed Walker ’02, who founded the firm Independent Consultants of Education, offers college counseling at the Crimson Academy.<\/p>\n