It's almost that time, college freshman will be arriving on college campuses across the state and starting a new chapter of their lives.
The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) is already working to make sure students adjust to all of the challenges freshman year brings.
"It was important for me to go to college because I would be the first one in my family to go," said Rebecca Garcia, incoming freshman at UIS.
"I want to be better than my parents. I want to take care of my future family, and my current family, and I want to be a successful person," said Anthony Boyd, incoming freshman at UIS.
The UIS class of 2018 is made up of students from diverse backgrounds, but they all have a common goal, graduation.
"A lot of these students are first generation college students, a lot of them might feel like they're academically under prepared, so they're very interested in resources that exist to help them be successful here," said Dr. Tarah Sweeting-Trotter, Coordinator, Summer Bridge Program at UIS.
The Summer Bridge Program at UIS helps ease the transition from high school to college life.
"The past two weeks we've been doing math courses and English courses. We've also been talking about financial stuff and housing, so we're getting ahead of the other freshman that will just be starting the first day," said Boyd.
UIS started the Summer Bridge Program three years ago. Students spend two weeks before school starts in classes sharpening up basic skills and learning new lessons.
The program was featured by WICS-TV 20 on August 14, 2014.
Watch the story online
