There is a concept in higher education referred to as “summer melt,” describing a phenomenon that despite being college eligible and sometimes even enrolled in college, students end up not attending – “melting” away during the summer due to jobs, distractions, family demands, or losing focus. According to the U.S. Department of Education, “nationally about 10 to 20 percent of college eligible students melt away, most of which are low-income minority students planning to enroll in community college.” (reference https://www.ed.gov/content/summer-melt). The Diamante Scholars summer component is a deliberate initiative to prepare students for the transition from high school to community college and also prevent the summer melt.

Now more than ever resilience and inner strength are critical skills and capabilities students need to create a career path and a life that challenges and fulfills them while bringing to life their gifts, voice, and heart’s desires. This is why Diamante Scholars has made teaching resiliency a core element of the program’s supplemental curriculum. Resilience is a critical life skill, it’s what helps you see failure as instruction, as data, as the source of where success will come from.