Lakeside program aims to inspire students to excel

She was a strong student until the sixth grade, when things began to change.

She developed a habit, and it wasn't a good one. It caused her to fail seventh grade, disappointing her family and friends.

She walked into eighth grade telling herself that failure would not repeat itself. But it did. That's when she admitted to herself she had a problem.

In her own words, Aqua Boyance is undisciplined, unmotivated and difficult to work with in school. In a last-ditch attempt to pull herself out of an academic spiral, Boyance enrolled in a summer program at the prestigious and private Lakeside School. The Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program (LEEP) gives public-school students a taste of a private-school education.

Today, she joins 88 others in graduating from the intense six-week program, which centers on a rigorous discipline of math, English and geography.

Boyance (pronounced boy-an-say) is an example of the students LEEP is trying to reach. Students who are not failing classes, nor excelling.

Typically, these students caught in the middle have not garnered much attention; they aren't adding to the dropout rolls and they aren't vying for the coveted spots reserved for highly capable students.

For 35 years, Lakeside has culled students from public schools to enroll in LEEP. About 90 students selected by their public-school counselors converge onto the manicured grounds of Lakeside School. They spend their days in the new building donated by two Lakeside alumni, Paul Allen and Bill Gates.

LEEP students, who are incoming ninth-graders, receive a half-credit toward high school. Some, like Boyance, must graduate from LEEP to enroll in high school. Others are academic achievers who use LEEP to shore up their study skills.

What these students receive, for free, is six weeks' worth of a Lakeside education - which costs the average student at the school $15,800 a year. For every class, there is one certificated teacher and two counselors, creating a ratio of 5-to-1.

Eight years ago, Lakeside added a year-round component to LEEP. For 16 Saturdays out of the school year, former LEEP students are brought in for sessions that range from study habits to how to fill out college applications.

"We get to give kids, who for the most part can't afford private education, a slice," says T.J. Vassar, the program's director. "They're the ones who need a private education the most . . . small class sizes, state-of-the-art facilities and tremendous resources."

Perhaps one or two of each summer's LEEP class might be accepted at Lakeside.

For Boyance, LEEP is the last chance academically, and the 14-year-old has seized it like a lifeline.

Every morning, she is up and out of her South Seattle home early to catch the bus to Lakeside's sprawling, collegelike campus at the northern edge of Seattle.

"School is nothing to mess around with," she says. "It determines what you'll do with the rest of your life."

What Lakeside would like its LEEP students to do is to put quality academics first. Vassar understands well what can happen by giving public-school students a taste of Lakeside's luxuries: small class sizes, renowned arts facilities and a strong academic program that has produced some of the world's richest and most powerful people.

"We want them to be frustrated," he says. "We want them to return to their schools and demand better."

Vassar, a former member of the Seattle School Board, says LEEP uncovers students who are bright but whose talents aren't fed by money-strapped, constrained public schools.

Ellison Horne enrolled in the LEEP class of 1967 when he was a "youth at risk."

"I felt like I had potential, and six weeks at Lakeside helped my self-esteem," says Horne, who owns a video-production company in the San Francisco area.

Horne is such a believer in what LEEP can do that he has launched a LEEP alumni association to support the program. LEEP's annual cost of $180,000 is paid through contributions from Lakeside benefactors and companies including Nintendo.

Tony Foland, an honors student heading to Ballard High School in the fall, enrolled in LEEP to keep his skills sharp over the summer and to enhance his college application. Foland stuns many when he talks of being born to a young mother who, homeless, placed him for adoption.

A young Filipino, Foland was adopted by a white family and tells his fellow students how uncomfortable the racial difference was at first.

"The point I was trying to get across is that your real family are the ones who take care of you, not just the ones with whom you're blood-related," the 14-year-old says.

Kristina Rhodes and William Clough are students from Washington Middle School's highly capable program. Both will enroll in Lakeside in the fall. Neither has had any trouble getting through LEEP's summer classes.

"I'm in the highest math class and I've found it to be remedial for me," Clough says.

When LEEP works well, says its director, Vassar, it uncovers the potential in students that public schools often miss.

Vassar was an average student in Seattle Public Schools when Lakeside recruited him into the LEEP program more than three decades ago.

He graduated from LEEP and then from Lakeside. A degree from Harvard University and a couple of stints in public education and Vassar is back at Lakeside, this time running LEEP.

Lynne K. Varner's phone message number is 206-464-3217. Her e-mail address is lvarner@seattletimes.com.