PUSD Holds Successful Summer Bridge Program

Arts Academy teachers at John Muir High School Early College Magnet co-led online discussions and project-based learning with student leaders as part of PUSD’s Academy Summer Bridge Program.

As the dog days of summer quickly become back-to-school days, a number of PUSD students are getting their first taste of high school early with the PUSD Summer Bridge program.

According to Dr. Kristina Turley-Payne, PUSD Coordinator for College and Careers for Pasadena Unified, the online program is a way to prepare students coming into the PUSD academies who are moving from middle school to high school.

They recently held a bridge session this past week, she said.

“Most of it was project-based learning where the students learn a few skills and then apply those skills and have an end product,” Turley-Payne explained. “So in the art academies, students designed a board game and then presented it, and in our engineering Academy, they designed and built a 3-D puzzle.”

“Students in the Business Academy did goal-setting and long-term planning,” Payne continued, “mapping out what they want for their future and doing a little research into what types of schools they would need if, at the end of the day, they want to own a mansion and drive a Ferrari. Students “backwards mapped” their high school and college studies to reach their goals.

Students also learned how to navigate the Canvas online learning system that PUSD will be utilizing this year.

“That’s really helpful, especially for students in the Early College Program at Muir,” said Shannon Mumolo, PUSD’s Coordinator of Signature Programs, “since the platform is the same for PUSD as well as Pasadena City College.”

Nearly 40 incoming Muir Freshman took their first college course this Summer, said Mumolo.

Payne also explained that the Summer Bridge Program concept is a co-teaching concept. Students were paired not only with signatures teachers, such as the arts and engineering teachers but their core teachers as well.

“So they got to meet their English teacher and their engineering teacher,” said Turley-Payne.

“With COVID, we had to think of on our feet,” Turley-Payne continued. “We wanted to meet students before the students entered the various academies, so the modified three-day online bridge program was established.”

“We wanted to get them familiar with their counselor, with their teachers, with their upperclassmen, with each other,” said Turley-Payne. Relationship-building is critical to the success of remote-learning.