During this summer program scholars form a safe and rich learning community as they share their lived experiences, hopes, fears, and dreams. As they learn about and grow to trust each other, they form a deep, supportive familial bond that provides a confidence-building touchstone and propels them towards their goals. They also organize study-groups, social gatherings, and birthday celebrations that extend beyond the summer. #AlfieStrong. They also bond with members of the Alfie Team, receive coaching from campus resources, and connect to members of the larger university.

During this summer program scholars empower their voices and learning processes to adapt to academic expectations as they write an academic paper and give a presentation about a social issue that is meaningful to them. In addition to sharing their research results, their analysis, and their learning process with the cohort and the campus resources, they receive individual feedback and mentoring. This process provides invaluable developmental learning for the individual scholars to practice expressing their ideas in low-stakes, in-class discussion and Socratic dialogue, and individual coaching sessions, before the graded final paper and presentation.

During this summer program scholars become civility leaders as they develop greater awareness of themselves and their shared humanity. They learn from other members of the cohort about different lived experiences, perspectives, values, approaches, and the social issues that their colleagues in the cohort have chosen to explore in their papers and presentations.