Calvin College will host an open house at its historic Ladies Literary Club in downtown Grand Rapids on Tuesday, January 29 at 7 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public. It will include light refreshments, an introduction to the program, a panel presentation by former students and an opportunity for Q&A.

Calvin's Tasha Paul is associate director of pre-college programs for the college and directs Entrada.

She said she hopes young people, their parents, local teachers, ministers and others will come out for a chance to learn more about Calvin's always-popular college immersion program.

"The idea," she said, "is to generate interest in Entrada and also give people the information they need to apply for Entrada 2008."

Paul said Entrada 2008 will be held from June 15 to July 11 and there is no fee to apply. The only out-of-pocket cost is a $200 enrollment fee for students who are admitted to the program.

Spanish for “entrance” or “gateway,” Entrada immerses high school junior and senior students of color in a college experience whose core is academic excellence. They take a college class, live in the residence halls, eat in the dining halls, study in the library, attend workshops, shoot hoops in the gym, perform service projects and enjoy the occasional outing.

Entrada scholars take a three- or four-credit hour course along with Calvin College students and meet the same course requirements as the Calvin students.

Scholars are assigned an academic coach, a trained teacher who attends classes with them in the morning and leads a study period (academic coaching session) with the scholars following the class. Academic coaches model and teach scholars how to be successful in their specific course and in college. In fact Entrada scholars often do better in their courses than other Calvin students.

Last summer Entrada drew a record number of 76 scholars from all over the country.

Ninety-six percent of Entrada scholars graduate from high school and go on to college. Of the 552 students who have completed Entrada since 1991, 249 of them have enrolled at Calvin.