This article discusses College Summit, a nonprofit effort centered around the premise that there is a sizable number of students who are more capable of college academics than their test scores and grade point averages suggest. Its four-day summer sessions are focused not on ramping up students' academic performance but in mining students'…

Adolescents today face increasing challenges, while the support systems that should help them meet and surmount those challenges are rapidly disappearing. Yearly statistics on teen substance abuse, depression, suicide, and violent crime continue to escalate. Teens with low attachments to school are most vulnerable because they are less likely to…