Opportunity Program
Department Overview
The Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) recruits and admits talented and motivated students from New York state who otherwise, owing to academic and financial circumstances, would be unable to attend Skidmore College.
The Academic Opportunity Program (AOP) recruits and admits students who are HEOP-like in their academic and economic profiles, yet are not eligible for support from the program because they reside in states other than New York, are international, or have income levels slightly above the HEOP economic eligibility guidelines.
Holistic in the approach to student development, both programs provide academic, financial, and counseling services, beginning with a required, pre-freshman, on-campus summer program. The Summer Academic Institute strengthens students’ academic and study skills and prepares them for an academically and personally successful college experience.
Course Listing
A practical study of the skills and tools needed to work with quantitative information from the real world. Students will learn and explore mathematical concepts such as arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, descriptive statistics and basic probability, estimation, unit analysis, absolute and relative change, and linear and exponential growth. Students will also represent and interpret numerical data in tabular and graphical forms. Material will be applied to a wide variety of fields.
A course designed for HEOP students that includes work on grammar, sentence structure, paragraph development, and ESL concerns. It will introduce interpretation and documentation of academic texts from a variety of disciplines. Students will move from short papers and revisions to a final analytical five-page paper.
This is a remedial course that includes both basic grammatical skills and the writing of one- and two-page essays. The instructor reviews sentence structure, usage, some ESL techniques, and paragraph development. The student progresses to longer essays and the creation of a portfolio of his/her best work.
This course is required for all first-year students in the Opportunity Program as a continuation of building students' foundation for academic success in college. Students will be given opportunities to integrate learning theories with their own academic development and continue to build communication skills. Focus will also be on familiarizing students with the available resources and support systems on campus.
This course follows the format of the Human Dilemmas section of SSP100 Scribner Seminar. Students are introduced to a variety of classroom settings, including lectures, guest lectures, discussion meetings, and performances. The study skills component of this course uses the content of the pre-Scribner Seminar readings and discussions to help students improve reading-comprehension, time-management, note-taking, analytical, and library skills.