Since the inception of the Individual Universe™ program last year, students, families, schools, therapists, and educational consultants have presented us with a wealth of challenges, catalyzing an orderly, yet rapid and responsive, expansion of our offerings.

As schools have collaborated with Individual U. to have us create individualized, goal directed "special project" semesters for students with unique challenges, we have expanded our teams of academic, integrative, organizational, and adventure/travel mentors. We have been joined by mentors with remarkable skills in movement and chi-channeling practices, music, whitewater kayaking and rafting, as well as integrative mentors with expertise ranging from mind/body work to tai chi and yoga. Correspondingly, students who come to Individual U. in search of goals ranging from finding academic direction to creating a life path, have collaborated with us in creating programs that have taken them back into history via museum field trips, down rapids in distant locations, into timeless practices of movement and meditation, and on walkabouts in countries and cultures of specific interest. Students sent to us to resolve specific issues, ranging from a lack of intellectual curiosity to a failure to demonstrate personal authenticity, have been engaged in activities that bring the centering, insight, and integrity of some practices to contribute to progress in others.

Enrichment and Special Studies for Gifted Students

Individual U.'s mentors function at the highest levels in their personal careers as scientists, mathematicians, technologists, authors, poets, screenwriters, internet and digital communication leaders, yoga instructors, emotional intelligence facilitators, martial artists, and psychotherapists, to name just a few. It is their great pleasure to share their knowledge, skills, experience, and insights about success with remarkable students from all walks of life who can benefit from the learning methods of the highest achievers.

Many students come for enrichment at Individual U. to explore specific subjects or fields in which they exhibit a particular aptitude or interest. For example, a fourth grader with good-to-average general academic skills, extraordinary ability in science, and a focused interest in dinosaurs, might come to Individual U. to deepen his experience in paleontology, while expanding his perspective in the sciences. His overall science enrichment might bring him into close contact with a spectrum of scientists ranging from a member of the Russian Academy of Science to a former Harvard and Rockefeller University researcher from a Nobel Prize winning laboratory. The student's work might include an examination of great thinkers of science such as Leonardo da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, or Hawking. Current topics ranging from the "death of science" and the revelations of String Theory to the Mars rovers and "near-miss meteorites" might be explored via NASA and TERC websites, print and visual media, conversations with visiting scientists, and virtual laboratory technologies.

Another example could be an inquisitive high school math student who proposes a method for solving cubic equations to his mother. She recognizes his gift for mathematics and wants to cultivate it. At Individual U., he might be paired with a MIT-educated math and physics mentor who considered the same approach in his own youth. Together they might explore topics ranging from absolute zero to special relativity and from imaginary numbers to the very real possibility of a career in Physics or Applied Mathematics.

The writing enrichment at Individual U. offers a third example. A high school student with aspirations to become a professional writer might come to the Collaborative Voices™ Program in which accomplished authors write in concert with young colleagues. She might meet with a group of 7-9 professional writers/mentors (novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, screenwriters, editors, psychotherapists, and talented student peers) who have read samples of her existing work in advance and prepared their own responses to writing prompts assigned to her. The group would then gather at Individual U. to welcome her as a colleague, fellow artist, and critic in a writing workshop.

The enrichment program also works with individual students who have achieved distinct success in their academic careers and who need to prepare for advanced standardized exams.

Enrichment and Special Studies for Gifted Students

Individual U.'s mentors function at the highest levels in their personal careers as scientists, mathematicians, historians, technologists, internet and digital communication leaders, authors, poets, screenwriters, singers, actors, yoga instructors, emotional intelligence facilitators, martial artists, dancers, psychotherapists, painters and musicians to name just a few. It is their great pleasure to share their knowledge, skills, experience, and insights about success with remarkable students from all walks of life who can benefit from the learning methods of the highest achievers.

Many students come for enrichment at Individual U. to explore specific subjects or fields in which they exhibit a particular aptitude or interest. For example, a ten-year old with fair-to-average general academic skills, extraordinary interest in science, and a focused interest in dinosaurs, might come to Individual U. to deepen his experience in paleontology, while expanding his perspective in the sciences. His overall science enrichment might bring him into close contact with a spectrum of scientists ranging from a member of the Russian Academy of Science to a former Harvard and Rockefeller University researcher from a Nobel Prize winning laboratory. The student's work might include an examination of great thinkers of science such as Leonardo da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, or Hawking. Current topics ranging from the "death of science" and the revelations of String Theory to the Mars rovers and "near-miss meteorites" might be explored via NASA and TERC websites, print and visual media, conversations with visiting scientists, and virtual laboratory technologies.

Similarly, a precocious eleven year year-old whose personal scientific reading selections include anatomy, microbiology and virology textbooks purchased at the B&N medical annex, might come to Individual U. to develop a more carefully guided, broad based fund of knowledge in biology and medical sciences. His goals might include developing an insightful understanding of the scientific method, investigatory instruments, research skills, current advances and core topics in biology and medicine, and fundamental issues in biomedical ethics. Media, including film, television, cd/ dvd, internet and live exhibitions and visits to research laboratories might be used to enhance his exposure and understanding.

Another example could be an inquisitive seventeen year-old math student who is on summer break between high-school and college and proposes a method for solving cubic equations to his mother. She recognizes his gift for mathematics and wants to cultivate it. At Individual U., he might be paired with a MIT-educated math and physics mentor who considered the same approach in his own youth. Together they might explore topics ranging from absolute zero to special relativity and from imaginary numbers to the very real possibility of a career in Physics or Applied Mathematics.

The writing enrichment at Individual U. offers a fourth example. A fifteen year-old on school stop for emotional reasons but with strong aspirations to become a professional writer might come to the Collaborative Voices' Program in which accomplished authors write in concert with young colleagues. She might meet with a group of 7-9 professional writers/mentors (novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, screenwriters, editors, psychotherapists, and talented student peers) who have read samples of her existing work in advance and prepared their own responses to writing prompts assigned to her. The group would then gather at Individual U. to welcome her as a colleague, fellow artist, and critic in a writing workshop.

Specialized Programs in Writing

Individual U's mentors include professional nonfiction and fiction writers, poets, and screenwriters who help students foster their voices and address their writing vulnerabilities. Some students come to Individual U. to develop their process and organization for writing technical essays and academic research papers, while others need help mastering grammar and style. We work one-on-one with young creative writers who, for instance, could benefit from additional guidance and insight into their poetry or fiction. While at Individual U. students have worked to develop Web logs, anthologies of short stories, haiku, how-to-manuals, screenplays, and personal essays. In appropriate situations, writers experiencing challenges with productivity, authenticity, or fear of exposure are also paired with integrative mentors who have professional expertise with emotional issues.

Many students come to Individual U. because of the increased interest in writing competency on the part of middle schools, high schools, and universities. Because writing is now a critical component of standardized tests, including the ISEE, ERB, Revised SAT (for spring 2005), ACT (also 2005), SAT II, and admission applications, we work with many students to develop the requisite skills to excel on these examinations.

Individual U. also mentors parents and other accomplished professionals who want to write more succinctly and with greater clarity. Especially promising writers of any age may be appropriate for the Collaborative Voices Program, spending an afternoon as a colleague with 7-9 professional writers.

Our special Collaborative Voices™ Program offers a unique contribution to mentoring young writers in the process, sharing the experience of being a writer, validating a young writer's efforts, critiquing his/her techniques, suggesting authors to read and study, creating connections and opportunities for future study, and helping each young writer's inner voice have its say. While a number of Individual U.'s programs have a student working in concert with 2-3 mentors simultaneously, Collaborative Voices™ is unique in matching a student with a group of 7-9 professional writers/mentors (novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, screenwriters, editors, specialists in emotional insight, and talented student peers). The group reads samples of the student's existing work in advance, prepares their own responses to two writing prompts assigned to the student, and, on a given afternoon, gathers at Individual U. to welcome that student as a colleague, fellow artist, and critic in a writing workshop. In addition to their work, everyone also shares stories of success, sacrifice, starting out, starting over, writing, and rewriting, all the while creating a bond across age and experience.

Eye to I.U. Intake™*
Creating a fast-track collaborative knowledge base for facilitating functional success.

Eye to I.U. Intake™ is Individual U.'s unique, individualized, collaborative assessment tool for facilitating an opinion about a student's academic strengths, vulnerabilities, and potential next steps.

Some students struggle in school with only vague descriptions of their less-than-effective learning styles. Others exhibit clearly troubling behavior in some areas, but are average or may even excel in others. Many other patterns of both vulnerability and strength exist as well, creating a spectrum of learning differences and deficits.

In these circumstances, parents too may struggle as to whether their children need or could benefit from a formal psycho-educational or neuro-psychological evaluation, remediation, change of school, medication, or all of the above. Additionally, the pragmatic question of how to address immediate learning challenges during the time it may take to put such evaluations in place often needs to be addressed. The Eye to I.U. Intake™ collaborative assessment tool was created as a response to both of these challenges.

Depending on a student's age, the nature of the referral, and other existing information, Individual U. draws from its team of mentors and other professionals to create an immersive one or two day experience organized around individualized, relevant themes of interest.

The "take home" product is a detailed narrative summary, including important excerpts from individual team members and a spectrum of suggestions regarding potential assessments, remediation techniques, and professional contacts the student and family might benefit from.

*The Eye to I.U. Intake™ is not intended as a formal neuro-psychological or psycho-educational assessment or evaluation tool, nor is it the standard practice of learning specialists or educational psychotherapists. While team members may have training or private practice in psychoanalysis, emotional competency, and other clinical fields, their participation as team members is to benefit the team's insight, not to make any formal diagnosis or to practice medicine or any form of healthcare.

I.U. Direct™
Technology Assisted Support for Students Outside of The NYC Area

I.U. Direct™ is Individual U.'s one-on-one, technology-assisted program for mentoring, organizing, and supporting students whose location prohibits working with us in person. Using web cameras, in concert with instant messaging and voice conversation, our mentors help these students succeed under a wide variety of circumstances.

College students with learning or organizational challenges, especially those away for the first time, can be directed in navigating course selection and/or in adjusting to a variety of academic and other school-related issues via I.U. Direct.™ I.U. Direct™ can continue to support these students throughout their educations, as it does with adults in a variety of challenging circumstances.

I.U. Direct™ can also be for younger students (grades 5-12) who need basic assistance keeping current with assigned work or preparing for examinations, including standardized tests.

I.U. Direct™
Technology Assisted Away from Home Support

I.U. Direct™ is Individual U.'s one-on-one, technology-assisted program for mentoring, organizing, and supporting who are away from their regular home and/or school environment. Using web cameras, in concert with instant messaging and voice conversation, our mentors help these students to succeed under a wide variety of circumstances.

College students with learning or organizational challenges away on summer break can be directed in navigating course selection and/or in adjusting to a variety of academic and other school-related issues via I.U. Direct.™ I.U. Direct™ can continue to support these students throughout their educations, as it does with adults in a variety of challenging circumstances.

I.U. Direct™ is also for younger students (grades 5-12) who are away from home (vacation, sports team travel, prolonged illness, long weekends) and need to keep current with assigned work or prepare for examinations, including standardized tests.

Young Adult Lifepath Program (Ages 16-24)

For a wide variety of reasons, many young people find themselves wondering what they should do or where they should go next, whether they're enrolled in school, just about to graduate, completing any number of different kinds of alternative programs at diverse institutions, or out of school and adrift. Next steps aren't always obvious, or easy. Individual U.'s Lifepath Program is designed precisely for the benefit of young people finding themselves in just such situations.

Whether it's helping them choose and apply to their next school, find a job, find a volunteer opportunity, fill in learning gaps with an individualized academic curriculum, or simply exploring what different options are available to them in general, Individual U.'s Young People's Lifepath Program can give young people the life skills they need to help direct them to where they want and need to go.

The initial process is very straightforward. The first step is a parent interview, followed by a series of student Eye-To-IU intake sessions. Individual U. then assembles a team of mentors with the necessary skills to help that student find their way. The majority of Individual U.'s mentors are both highly accomplished, creative teachers and recognized working professionals in their fields of expertise, allowing their students to benefit from their professional insights, personal experiences, and the community of affirmation and support that the mentors collectively comprise. Whatever a student wants to explore - from career in science, to being a writer, to creating a micro-loan foundation, to just about anything - they will learn from people who have already taken such paths in their own lives and are thus intimately familiar with the complexities of those choices.

Whether young people are in need of guidance about choices they've already made, inspiration about where to go next, or simply about making the transition to independence, Individual U.'s Young People's Lifepath Program provides the direction they need at times of change or challenge in their lives.

Extensive School Collaboration Program

Individual U. is increasingly involved in extensive and close collaboration with a diverse group of schools for selective students whose needs these schools cannot entirely meet for a variety of circumstances.

Whether a student's challenges or giftedness begin to outstrip their current school's capabilities for any number of reasons, that school is no longer as good a fit as it once was for the student. But when that student wants or needs to remain in their current school, they would then benefit enormously from supplemental teaching following the curriculum of one or more of their current classes, or from spending up to half of the day in an enriched, individualized 'home school' environment.

It was with just such cases in mind that Individual U. created our School Collaboration Program. Working hand-in-hand with the student's current school and with their approval and cooperation, Individual U. can teach or re-teach as much as half of a student's school's curriculum through one-on-one, individualized methods geared to that particular student's learning style. More extensive and comprehensive than our Jean Splice program, our School Collaboration Program is a good choice for students who need to remain in their current school even though it may no longer be the best place for their learning. By working at Individual U. while still attending their current school, students maximize their academic effectiveness while building knowledge and confidence, not undermining it. This allows them to become more attractive candidates for their next, full-time learning institution and also better learners when they attend that institution.

For students whose current school is no longer 'quite right' for any number of reasons, but who are unable to transfer or change schools in the near future, Individual U.'s School Collaboration program offers the support they need to bridge the time between the present and their next school without sacrificing their education or their faith in themselves.

In special circumstances, where a student would benefit from learning their current or potential future institution's curriculum while being in an enriched 'home school' environment rather than attending classes at that institutions facility, Individual U.'s School Collaboration Program can provide 1:1 mentoring to a student in the curriculum of that institution, allowing the school an opportunity to consider the student's progress/mastery of academic, executive function, and or social/emotional issues following a designated period of mentoring support, remediation and enrichment.

Individualized Education for PLAN, ACT, SAT I, SAT II, ISEE, ERB, NYCSST

This program is fully active and enjoying great success. We are currently developing more detailed information about this capability. If you would like further information at this time, please contact us directly.

We Too™
Education for Parents and Other Adults

We Too™ is Individual U.'s one-on-one program for parents who would like to acquire a broad understanding of specific subject curricula, e.g. third grade math, fifth grade European or American history, basic algebra, biology, chemistry, etc.

Typically, the goal of these parents is to be more informed, more relevant, so they may contribute to and interact with their children's upcoming or ongoing school learning and standardized examinations.

We Too™ is also for those parents who wish to be even more "hands-on", desiring in-depth presentations of important core concepts in various subjects, often to support their child's ongoing remediation, or simply to understand a struggling child from a more knowledgeable perspective.

Finally, Individual U. recognizes that some "older kids" want to go back to school and finally get it right. We Too™ is for these adults who wish to develop subject competency or mastery in areas they avoided or perhaps never fully understood. For those who could "never do algebra", "would love to write better", or have any subject in mind they would like to make their own, Individual U. will provide the right innovative mentor to meet their learning needs.

The Individual U. Guided Resource Center

Students are drawn to Individual U. for a wide variety of reasons. Some come for just a few hours to remediate a specific learning challenge, others may come for 6-10 hours a week to gain the skills and strategies necessary to deal effectively with their newly diagnosed learning disorder and its academic and emotional sequelae, while still others may be at Individual U. near fulltime for months working through life difficulties that have effected them globally.

In all the above instances, one-on-one remediation will no doubt play an important role. However, students also need a place to inquire, explore, and discover with print and online resources available. More importantly, they also need the guidance of informed, effective mentors on hand and involved to make the process fully beneficial. In addition, such an environment offers a safe and productive "resting place" between intensive remediation sessions so that parents of students involved in various Individual U. programs can know their whereabouts for an extended period of time without incurring the sometimes prohibitive cost of non-stop, one-on-one remediation.

September 2004 marked the opening of Individual U.'s Guided Resource Center. The Center is available by appointment daily from 8 A.M. until 10 P.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. weekends, for learning, reading, practicing yoga, tai-chi, meditative arts, Japanese cooking and Ikebana, exploring online, and letting students' minds and bodies just be still.

The Jean Splice Initiative™

Individual U.'s Jean Splice Initiative™, now in its second year, was created to support three populations of students with significant learning issues who are still in school and could greatly benefit from being "spliced out" of some portion of their current school circumstance and into Individual U.'s therapeautically sensitive remediation environment.

The first population (Jean Splice 1 Students) have vastly uneven academic capabilities, performing adequately, or even very well, in a number of academic subjects in their competitive independent school environments, yet below expectation or acceptable school standards in one or two others. For these students, particularly those failing mathematics at any level, the four to five hours spent weekly in their school classes only serve to widen the academic gap between them and their fellow classmates, heightening frustration and lowering self-esteem. Because there are limits to what an independent school can do in relating to the needs of a specific child, failure in one or two courses can lead to a downward spiral resulting, at best, in a need for summer school, but more likely in a mid-year or end-of-year school change. With the close collaboration of students' schools and parents, Individual U.'s Jean Splice Initiative™ briefly "splices" these students into our remediative, therapeutically oriented support system during those precious hours when a student would otherwise have been in a classroom studying the problematic subject matter. If these students' schedules present a sufficient block of time (e.g. a math class followed by a study hall or lunch period) they can come to Individual U.'s offices. In most instances, however, where the time available is only the 55 or so minutes allotted to that class on a daily basis, Individual U. sends its mentors to informal locations near a student's school where they can meet with that student and intensively remediate their funds of knowledge and performance skills in a given area. In this manner, working one on one with extraordinarily gifted and insightful mentors who have fluent command of their subject matter, students can work on the syllabus material provided by their teachers while filling in the lacunae that continually hold them back as their class goes forward. Individual U. is not a school, and students must meet whatever requirements are necessary for their work to be assessed and given credit as appropriate by their institutions.

The second population (Jean Splice 2 Students), while still attending their current schools, has entered a period of intended school change. In the best of circumstances, the current school is collaborating with both the student's family and the mentors so the student can get the most out of the current learning situation while successfully transferring to another school environment. For these students, scheduled school periods in subjects where the student can no longer keep up are both unproductive and damaging to self-esteem. In this situation, classroom time can be converted to highly constructive remediation time. For example, an eighth-grade student with a learning disability who is failing algebra and whose fundamentals are too weak for him or her to succeed even in the previous grade's math work can spend those four to five hours a week in a remediation program of "functional math." In this manner, the long cycle of math failure and disappointment moves toward closure. Given the fundamentals and a firm place to stand, that student can begin at a new institution supported by his knowledge of the subject matter and the confidence that he not only knows the material, but can "do it" on exams, quizzes, and in other pressure situations. As with all Individual U. programs, any formal evaluation of the work done in this initiative, or academic credit given for it, is at the discretion of the student's school.

The third population (Jean Splice 3 Students) who benefits from the Jean Splice Initiative™ is in considerably more difficulty. Still in school or perhaps on the brink of being asked to take a leave, these students, often from the confluence of learning disabilities and a significant emotional event (divorce, illness, death of a parent), show evidence that they may decompensate in the near future. Prior to Jean Splice™, the options for such students might have included "a few weeks home" (most of it non-productive) or preemptively removing them for hospitalization or attendance at a therapeutic boarding environment. Now, with the collaboration of insightful deans, pediatricians, therapists, educational consultants, and better-educated parents, such "at risk" students can be identified earlier and referred to Individual U. Here for a period of days to weeks, they can receive the highest level of individually crafted academic support in an emotionally insightful environment also offering meditative, martial arts, and other physical practices that promote general wellbeing. In such circumstances, Individual U. works closely with that student's outside therapists, physicians, and other support network members in whatever capacity might benefit the student and family. If and when appropriate, students return to their schools with academic syllabi that have been followed as closely as possible and with additional skills and strategies for self-esteem and success put into place and growing.

Students who cannot return to their schools due to emotional or other factors may continue at Individual U. for an extended period of time, in essence becoming participants in our Individual Universe™ program.

Individual U. Inward Bound™ Program

Students transitioning out of therapeutic wilderness programs can greatly benefit from an individualized program that offers both structure and flexibility in a supportive, embracing environment. Many students already long removed from the benefits of home and family during their wilderness experience would ideally have, as their next important destination on their journey, a daytime environment in which they could be part of a community. The Inward Bound™ program offers students a favorable alternative to therapeutic boarding school, and is committed to each student's personal affirmation, academic excellence, learning, discovery and progress forward. Inward Bound™ students are provided the opportunity to explore academic or other personal interests, remediate areas of academic vulnerability, be exposed to mentors with a broad spectrum of talents and interests, and develop emotional insight as well as movement, meditation, and other integrative practices to help calm their inner world and support them during future challenges.

A typical day at Inward Bound™ might include:

A student's individualized Inward Bound™ program can be designed to emphasize work in their areas of special concern and to provide special support as necessary. The program offers flexibility to accommodate the hours that each student has available on a daily basis and for students to leave and return during the day so that they might see outside therapists and other professionals that may comprise their support team. Help and guidance can be given to students in preparing for standardized examinations and in the application process to new middle schools, high schools, colleges, as well as in the exploration of employment or career opportunities. In situations where a student would benefit from more formal educational counseling, Individual U. works in close collaboration with some of the country's most respected and well-regarded educational consultants.

Individual U. Pre-College Gap Year Program

Overview: Why a Gap Year Program?

For a variety of reasons, a number of high school seniors find themselves questioning if they're ready for the challenges of college, even if they've already been accepted. For some, the intuition they are insufficiently prepared, either academically or socially and emotionally, may be quite appropriate. Other students, struggling with some confluence of social and emotional immaturity, organizational issues, and other 'executive function' challenges, may not have the self-monitoring skills to assess their readiness to move on. Instead, it may be concerned parents, school officials, or therapists who recognize that a college acceptance letter does not mean that a student would be well-served by beginning college studies in the school year immediately following high school graduation.

Independent schools with a philosophy of inclusion, student-centered curricula, personalized academic support, and a tolerance for delayed social and emotional growth, may be able to identify a number of students who are unprepared for a successful, independent, college experience. Specific students at such schools, having made full use of available resources, may have had a very valuable and positive high school experience, achieved favorable GPA's, and perhaps even excelled in areas of academic interest. However, immediate entry into college would present these students with an overwhelming challenge, possibly leading to a painful downward spiral. In some of the more rigorous independent schools, a number of students fueled by extensive tutoring and test cramming, may also lack the necessary independence skills, self-direction and motivation to succeed in college.

In summary, students may not be ready to move on to college from high school for a variety of specific reasons. These include:

Of course, more than one of these reasons may be operative for any given student.

Individual U's Pre-College Gap Year Program is designed to address vulnerabilities related to academics, executive function, social and emotional development, and life path confusion through 1:1 mentoring and remediation. In addition, each student has opportunities to:

The program is offered on a semester basis and the application/admission process, while highly selective (we only accept students whom we believe Individual U.'s Gap Year Program is well suited to help succeed), is very straightforward.

After a student is referred to us, the first step is that we ask to review the student's school records, standardized examination (SAT, ACT) results, and any psychoeducational or neuropsychoeducational evaluations that may have been done. We then interview the student's parent(s). Following the parent interview, we may ask permission to speak with a student's therapist, school guidance counselor, dean, and/or college admissions officers when relevant. The student is then invited to meet various members of the Gap Year Mentoring Team, (a process dubbed 'Eye-To-IU Student Intake'), comprising 4-6 hours in total over a 1-2 day period. Individual U. then assembles a team of mentors with the necessary skills to help a student find his or her way forward, and works with the student to find the best adjunctive mix of electives based on her or his interests.

The majority of Individual U.'s mentors are both highly accomplished, creative teachers and recognized working professionals in their fields of expertise. Students thus may benefit from sharing of insights and personal experiences with their individual mentors, from the community of affirmation and support that the mentors collectively comprise, and, as it may occur, from sharing their own insights and experiences with other students in Individual U's Gap Year Program.

Part-Year Alternative Gap Program

Individual U. also offers a Part-Year Alternative Gap Program. This program is identical to the full-year program in every way with the exception that it is designed from the outset to accommodate students who do not wish to spend their entire year on academic components. In the Alternative Gap Program, students can sign up for programs of three, six, or nine months which are simply shorter forms of the full-year program. At the end of the chosen period, once Individual U. has had time to work with and get to know the student in depth, we work with the student and their family to determine what other options the student might want to explore in the time remaining in their Gap Year. Possibilities for their remaining time might include corporate internships, Habitat For Humanity, travel programs in Europe, Asia, or Latin America, or other programs which necessitate extended absence from New York City or do not leave room for academic pursuits during their schedule. The Part-Year Program is ideal for students who need some academic preparation for college, but also some experience of the world at large before living on their own for the first time in their lives.

Individual U. Lower to Middle School Bridging Year Program

Executive functioning skills define success, or lack thereof, in the life of Middle Schoolers. Middle School students are expected to understand assignments and show independence in planning and organizing their work. They need to initiate assignments and tasks and follow through effectively. They have to bring home necessary materials, follow directions correctly, and bring appropriately completed assignments back to school on time.

Middle Schoolers need to be able to grasp main ideas so they can identify what to study in a body of information. They also need to have learned strong general study skills as well as understand their best personal techniques for studying. They frequently have to juggle multiple assignments, due dates, expectations, and styles from as many as six teachers. They need to maintain materials in lockers at a distance from classrooms and quickly choose what is required for class, as well as at the end of the day. Time management, working memory, and multi-tasking are necessary skills often taken for granted.

Academic expectations for Middle Schoolers are also much more rigorous than for Lower Schoolers. The ability to meet these expectations may not be well measured by standardized tests (e.g. the Woodcock Johnson Achievement Tests-III or the Gray Oral Reading Test) since the skill levels and stamina expected of students are well beyond those measured in such assessments. Stamina may particularly be a factor in children with learning differences or disabilities, given the extra effort they need to keep up.

In Middle School, the demand on reading comprehension skills rapidly becomes more sophisticated. Requisite comprehension skills include making inferences, discerning unstated main ideas, and anticipating outcomes.

Expectations of students' writing also rise in Middle School, and many academic subjects integrate writing skills. Students must be able to organize and elaborate their ideas, stay focused on a main topic, and understand the relationship between main ideas and supporting evidence. Many children may have strong oral expressive skills, but have serious challenges with written production, the latter of which negatively impacts their classwork, tests, and homework.

In most Middle Schools, mathematics skills build on the mastery of basic algorithms, the ability to shift among operations in complex problems, and on applying algorithms to word problems. Students need to extract critical information and recognize patterns in order to achieve these goals.

As challenging as all of these academic and organizational demands can be, students may find the social demands of the middle school community equally overwhelming. At this age, children want desperately to be the same as their peers, but developmentally, they differ greatly. Children with any kind of challenge feel they will be ostracized and humiliated. Social understanding and adeptness are needed for all children to present themselves successfully, form friendships, and maintain their position in this challenging environment.

The Transition from Lower to Middle School: Why a Bridging Year Program?

In most Lower Schools, students work in the context of a structured classroom supported by a teacher who actively helps organize their classwork and homework. As noted above, the class structure and support in most Middle Schools is markedly different. Correspondingly, the increased level of executive functions and academic skills that Middle Schoolers need to demonstrate makes the transition from Lower to Middle School a quantum leap. The difficulty such a transition may present is exacerbated by the brief time over which it occurs, particularly if a school's transition support does not remain in place for students who continue to struggle.

For some students, there is a predictable mismatch between their academic and/or organizational development and the level of Middle School challenges. This could be due to neursopsychological challenges, individual developmental variation, or other factors. Consequently, success in this endeavor will be beyond their reach. Often it is not a question of effort; these students may, in fact, be giving far more effort than their classmates. Teachers are frequently required to follow a school's guidelines for a given grade and are unable to respond fully to the needs of an individual. Teacher flexibility and tolerance with a given student can thus be limited. One often hears, 'A Fifth Grader should?' as part of the rationale for not scaffolding these skills within the school. Additionally, students may struggle mightily with their Middle School homework assignments each night (a ritual witnessed with great distress by their parents), yet be told by teachers, 'You're not trying.' Parents may then frantically try to organize their children's work at home to no avail. The results include academic decline, loss of self-esteem, family tension, and a global sense of frustration and confusion.

Students need to have a positive attitude about themselves as learners to succeed in school at all levels, but this is particularly true as they transition to Middle School. They have to feel that with perseverance and hard work, a reasonable level of achievement is within their ability. When children feel incapable of meeting the expectations of teachers and parents no matter how hard they try, they lose faith in themselves and in the process.

To avoid such outcomes, an individualized 'Bridging Year' can be invaluable.

Who May Benefit from a Lower to Middle School Bridging Year Program

Students who may predictably benefit from an individualized 'Bridging Year' at Individual U. include:

Specifics of Individual U.'s Lower to Middle School Bridging Program

The purpose of Individual U.'s Bridging Program is to provide remediation in academics, specific instruction in executive function strategies, and coaching for handling a new and more challenging social environment. Students work intensively with a mentoring team to build the skills and readiness needed to take on Middle School successfully.

It is the goal of the Individual U. Bridging Program to prepare each student to enter an appropriate Middle School as a confident learner, problem solver, and member of the social community, with strategies in place for handling his or her specific challenges. Individual U.'s mentors comprise a community of affirmation and support that allows each child to develop mastery of her or his studies, learn to navigate school environments, and believe in his or her own competence. This empowers children to have the perseverance and resilience necessary for the challenges they will face in Middle School.

The core components of the Lower to Middle School Bridging Program include:

Intensive Remediation and Enrichment in Academic Areas as Needed

Intensive Mentoring to Develop Individualized Strategies for Executive Function

Intensive Mentoring in Social Understanding and Awareness

Enhancement Programs for Personal Development