Two six-week AAP academic summer programs- The Freshman Summer Program and the Transfer Summer Program- prepare students to succeed by exposing them to the rigor and demands of academic life and to undergraduate programs, services, and learning resources.

Students enroll in two or three University courses that meet UCLA requirements for graduation, and they receive personal attention, in either small groups or individuals sessions, from teaching assistants and tutors. They are encouraged to live on campus and to participate in cultural and social events, interact with students of diverse backgrounds, build a network of friends, and broaden their life experiences and world outlook.

FSP and TSP provide a transition into the university, a way to confront the university's demands and become familiar with what it takes to succeed at UCLA. Success in FSP and TSP builds confidence in one's intellectual abilities before having to meet the pressures of the first full quarter of university academic work. The rigor and intellectual demands of the courses alert students to the fact that they're going to have to work hard; the courses, however, also make them feel comfortable in thinking of themselves as successful UCLA students.

FSP and TSP Curriculum FSP and TSP courses stress analytical reading, writing, and critical thinking through an adjuncted curricular model that uses dialogue and problem-posing in and out of class as the primary learning method. Students are concurrently enrolled in a composition course and a lecture course. Instructors, teaching assistants, and tutors meet regularly to plan the courses, develop assignments, agree on readings, weave writing instruction into the two adjuncted courses, and, during FSP and TSP, discuss students' academic performance. Pairing courses in this way allows instructors TA's, and tutors to address analytical reading, writing, and critical thinking in a manner that helps students to appreciate writing as a powerful tool for learning across the curriculum.

Study skills are not taught separately. They are learned by students in the context of completing content-based assignments. For example, students work with peer counselorsto assess the way they use their study time; they discuss ways of analyzing and synthesizing course materials with their teaching assistants; and they work with their tutors on specific problems related, for example, to exam preparation or faculty expectations on essay assignments.

In FSP and TSP, students learn to take responsibility for their own intellectual development. They are trained to enter into an active dialogue with the authors they are reading. The papers they write become a live debate of ideas. The classroom becomes an arena where ideas are tested through a continuous dialogue with the instructor and with classmates. AAP expects instructors to open their classrooms to clashing points of view and to present materials and ideas that challenge students to rethink their assumptions about the world and their place in it. Instructors use a myriad of techniques to engage students in dialogue, including classroom debates, collaborative learning assignments, peer response groups to discuss students' writing, andjournals.

Students learn to appreciate the value of their own experiences and the potential they have to reshape the world with what they learn. Assignments typically build from student experience to academic analysis. Courses are designed to bring the world into the classroom. To strengthen the connection between academic learning and life, the program offers a weekly series of extracurricularpresentations on important social, cultural, and political issues.

Ray Rocco
Professor, Political Science

"I've been teaching in the AAP Freshman Summer Program (FSP) since the early 1980's. I see FSP and TSP as a transition into the university, as a way of confronting the university's demands and becoming familiar with what it will take to succeed at UCLA. Success in FSP and TSP builds confidence in one's intellectual abilities before having to meet the pressures of the first full quarter of academic work. The courses are rigorous and demanding. We alert students to the fact that they're going to have to work hard here; and we get them to feel comfortable with themselves as UCLA students."

Adolfo Bermeo
Former Professor, Chicano/a Studies

"F/TSP provides a challenging and demanding education for all students. Every teacher, T.A.and tutor expects, and teaches to, excellence. We send every student the clear message that AAP promotes the highest academic standards, offers a demanding and rigorous F/TSP curriculum, and is confident that all F/TSP students can excel and are expected to excel. I see F/TSP as critical in preparing students to become thinking, analytical citizens who will participate responsibly in forging a more just, humane, and equitable society."