College Excel
What Is College Excel?
College Excel is a residential, private program which aids students in building academic and personal confidence while they study in college. Aside from its program, the students are also enrolled at the Oregon State’s Cascade Campus or at the local community college for additional courses. Each of the students receives guidance from the learning specialists, coaches, and professors. At College Excel, the students can cultivate the confidence and internal motivation they need in order to succeed in life and in college. Through the program, each student is supervised personally in order for him/her to strive to do better.
College Excel has three facilities: the Academic Center for Excellence, the Oasis Building, and the Community House. The Academic Center for Excellence is where College Excel provides academic support services. It is a state of the art facility specifically designed for college students which incorporates a classroom, a large computer lab, private study rooms, and a beautiful living room area. The Oasis Building is a relaxing, comfortable, and quiet environment where students can study without interruption, meditate, paint or draw in the art studio, or read. The Community House is cozy, warm, home-away-from-home bungalow which is located in a busy neighborhood near an organic store, a bakery, coffee shops, and trendy restaurants. College Excel is located in Bend, Oregon.
Students who seek the help of College Excellence are from 18 to 25 years of age, not only from all parts of the United States of America but from other countries as well. They come from different backgrounds, spiritual beliefs, political affiliations, and sexual orientations. They are mostly writers, filmmakers, activists, entrepreneurs, inventors, musicians, environmentalists, intellectuals, athletes, and artists. They all share something in common: They want to earn a college degree.
Students who go to College Excel have problems in the following areas:
- Maintaining a successful academic record
- Exploring achievable career and academic options
- Developing intrinsic motivation
- Managing and understanding learning differences
- Building self-confidence either personally or academically
- Committing and sustaining with a course of action
- Transitioning to young adulthood successfully
- Self advocating
- Obtain skills to self manage
- Accepting responsibility for results
- Positive self regard
- Self-ownership
- Time management
- Decision making
- Depression/anxiety
- Accountability
- Independent living skills
- Stress management
- Financial responsibility
- Social skills
- Task completion
- Organizational skills
- Perfectionism
- Balancing social, work, and school lives
College Excel doesn’t accept students who:
- Are forced into the program
- Are not ready to exert effort to change
- Have untreated mental health, addiction issues/substance abuse, or medical health
- Need maximum supervision to be successful
- Are in denial that they need help
- Are engaged in self-destructive behavior
- Have criminal backgrounds
The College Excel Program
- Stage One: Get Ready: The first 90 days are spent on examining the student’s motives, discovering what holds him/her back personally and academically, and developing a plan to move forward. By the end of Stage One, the student will have a complete vision of his/her future with a detailed plan and specific goals.
- Stage Two: Get Set: In this stage, the student starts to exert hard work in practicing the behavior, attitudes, strategies, and skill in order to accomplish his/her goals in life. At this stage, the student is also enrolled in a college course he/she has chosen with the guidance of an advisor and academic coach.
- Stage Three: Go: In this stage, the student has already established a rhythm for his/her academic success. He/she can now transfer to another school or study in one of the local universities.
