Many students walking down Nebraska to pick up burritos at Chipotle ignore the buildings to their left that make up the Tenley Campus. What they may not know is that some freshmen begin their AU college careers there with the Washington Mentorship Program.
Instead of having a waiting list, AU has the Washington Mentorship Program for students who are not immediately admitted to AU, according Interim Provost Ivy Broder. Those who accept live on the Tenley campus for a semester and take 15 credits.
The program allows students accepted for a spring semester to come to school in the fall as full-time, non-matriculating students, according to Broder in the minutes of the May 3 Faculty Senate meeting on its Web site.
In order for them to keep up with requirements and graduate on time, they are invited to begin their studies in the Washington Mentorship Program on the Tenley campus down Nebraska Avenue.
The program began four years ago and was "founded solely for students admitted to AU for matriculation in the spring term," said April Wilson, Washington Mentorship Program coordinator, in an e-mail.
There are about 101 freshmen in the program living on Tenley campus, said Paul Lynch, assistant director of Housing and Dining Programs, housing assignments and billing.
Freshmen in this program take 15 credits and a required internship.
Kathleen Ludgate, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she wishes more information was provided about the internship part of the program before she arrived on campus.
"We were pressed for time," she said, so students could not necessarily get the internship they wanted.
Students in this program take two required courses, "Politics in the U.S." and "Cross-Cultural Communication" for three credits each. These courses help students fulfill the requirements of the General Education program, Wilson said.
The students spend two days each week in the seminar classes, which use D.C. as their lab, she said. Guest speakers usually join the class each week to lecture and lead seminar discussions, she said.
Students say they enjoy their experiences in Washington.
"I like the program, as it gives us in-the-city experience as well as college experience," said Dana Fytelson, a freshman in CAS.
Another three credits are earned in the Mentored Field practicum course. Students spend two days each week in this program, which takes place in an office setting. Some examples for the 2006 program include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Geographic, Wilson said in the e-mail.
The rest of the credits are earned in the required College Writing course and an elective chosen by the student.
One complaint some students say they have is feeling isolated on Tenley campus.
"[I] would like to be on main campus because that's where everything is," said Trevor McVeigh, a freshman in CAS.
Michael Haidet, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said he believes the students in the Mentorship Program were not qualified enough to be admitted to AU at first.
"If they're not allowed into the university and need to get in through a program, they're not of the same standard," he said.
Broder addressed the goal of the program during the Faculty Senate meeting.
"[The Washington Mentorship Program] is a way of helping these students who are not quite up to the caliber of the incoming student," she said, according to the minutes.
Wilson said in the e-mail the program is not made available to "the thousands of students who are denied admission to American University."
"Student selection is part of AU's undergraduate admissions process," she said.
Wilson said the students in the program are energetic.
"They participate in seminar discussion and eagerly attend all seminars on and off campus," she said.
Another group that resides on the Tenley Campus is students in the Washington Semester program, a program for students from around the nation and many countries who come to D.C. to get internship and class experience, according to Lynch.
The Washington Semester Program currently has about 320 students in it, he said.
Lynch said there is historically more interest in the program during election years.
The Washington Mentorship freshmen will move to main campus for the spring 2007 term, as happens every year, Lynch said.
