Presenter: CYNTHIA STEELE, University of South Carolina

      Academic youth programs provide a fertile ground for the recruitment of scholastically talented students. At the University of South Carolina, the Office of Academic Enrichment and Conferences (AE&C) developed and runs a summer program for academically talented students and collaborates with Undergraduate Admissions to track, market, and monitor these participants. In addition, AE&C provides support and coordinates other youth summer academic programs operated on campus. This maximizes academic quality and provides tangible recruitment records for any students matriculating at USC that attended a summer academic youth program.
      This session will explore how we coordinate, create, market and manage the internationally acclaimed Carolina Master Scholars (CMS) program as well as contracted summer academic youth programs. Using the CMS and SPRI program as examples, we will show how the growth in academically talented students has increased in direct proportion with the creation of a dedicated position in both AE&C and Undergraduate Admissions to maximize this outreach opportunity.