Mount Oread Scholars to make symbolic walk up the hill Aug. 19

LAWRENCE — Continuing a meaningful tradition, the 2012-2013 Mount Oread Scholars will make a symbolic walk up the hill known as Mount Oread at 9 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 19.

As KU graduating seniors celebrate their academic accomplishment by taking a symbolic walk down Mount Oread, Mount Oread Scholars, a high-ability freshman program, will mark the beginning of their KU career by walking up the Hill while carrying the 2012 graduation banner and wearing their Mount Oread Scholar shirt that states "What Goes Up, Must Come Down."

Leading the 257 scholars up the Hill, Kathryn Nemeth Tuttle, special advisor to the provost and published historian, will provide commentary about campus history and Mount Oread.

Since 1996 the Mount Oread Scholars Program, part of KU's Undergraduate Advising Center, has facilitated academic connections on campus for students who qualified by applying and graduating in the top 20 percent of their high school class and receiving an ACT composite score of at least 28 or a minimum SAT score of 1240.

Mount Oread Scholars work closely with an adviser in their field of interest, share class schedules to form study or discussion groups, and attend scholar support sessions. In addition, there are some small class options reserved for scholars. The retention rate for Mount Oread Scholars after one year averages 11-15 percent higher than the overall first-time, full-time freshmen.

The walk up the Hill will be followed by a continental breakfast reception on the main level of Anschutz Library. Library faculty and staff, including Dean of Libraries Lorraine Haricombe, will greet the students and invite them to learn more about KU's libraries.

The KU Libraries house scores of internationally significant collections and offer a variety of innovative services to support learning. The Learning Studio at Anschutz Library, for example, is an innovative, centralized student resource center that brings together flexible study spaces, library services, the KU Writing Center, KU Info, tutoring and advising all in one location. Anschutz Library is also home to the sciences, business and U.S. government documents collections, the T.R. Smith Map Collection and the GIS and Data Lab.

During the breakfast, Nemeth Tuttle; Haricombe; Professor James Carothers and Rachel Gilman, sophomore in computer engineering, Mount Oread Scholars Student Board coordinator and Living Learning Community peer mentor, will address the scholars.