Finding your way around a new school and juggling a high school schedule may be tough, but school officials say the challenges facing incoming freshmen run even deeper.

The Waco Independent School District is piloting a new program for soon-to-be ninth-graders, Summer Success Academy, that they hope will not only help get the kids through their freshman year but build a foundation for success throughout high school.

“We have the potential to change culture and increase the completion rate. And we have the opportunity to teach kids, through these efforts, to be helping people,” Liz Harris, WISD director of student services, said.

Incoming freshman Anthony Rodriguez puts a blindfold around Amie Malondado during one of several team-building exercises. (Rod Aydelotte photo)

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Shea Carr, 13, sticks out her foot while she reaches for a line to grab on the Baylor University ropes course. Carr is one of 87 incoming freshmen in the Waco Independent School District participating in the Summer Success Academy. (Rod Aydelotte photo)

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Incoming freshmen try to hold onto each other while standing on a small box. (Rod Aydelotte photo)

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The academy is an effort to decrease the number of ninth-grade repeats and high school dropouts, Harris said. The program attempts to reach kids before they go down the wrong path, as opposed to trying to recover them after they’ve failed, she said.

About 87 of last year’s eighth-graders from across WISD are attending the academy from June 8 to July 10. Academy attendees walk away from the summer program with a jump on their graduation requirements, a half-credit in both health and physical education, as well as their certification in CPR.

But district officials say they hope the kids walk away with something else — a positive self-concept, leadership skills and a willingness to look out for each other once they hit high school.

“We want them to begin high school feeling confident and more comfortable, and then schools can use them as leaders right away, from the get-go,” Harris said.

Leadership, teamwork and a little fun were the objectives of the day for students Friday, as they braved the afternoon heat to tackle Baylor University’s challenge course.

“The ropes course teaches them to watch for emerging leaders,” Harris said. “It’s important that be pointed out to them, that we are all good at something and better at something than someone else. It’s important to recognize that so you appreciate everyone’s gifts and talents.”

David Jacinto, 14, who is leaving University Middle for University High next year, said he is already getting the leadership message.

“After going through this whole leadership thing, it makes you want to go in the school and take a role,” Jacinto said.

Felix Glass, an assistant principal at Waco High School, said the program is valuable for the relationships it allows the kids to establish early, with each other and with someone like Glass, whom they may see around the campus next year.

“It lets them get to know me as someone besides the person who handles all the discipline problems,” Glass said.

One reason freshman go astray, he said, is because they get lost in the shuffle at high school and feel a sense of anonymity — a sense that they can do anything and get away with it.

Freshmen can also be self-defeating in other ways, incoming University High freshman Monica Gonzales, 14, said.

“They’re so used to being at the top, they start getting an attitude with people and then feel like the world’s against them,” Gonzales said.

The district called households of incoming freshmen across WISD, but only 87 of the roughly 1,000 future freshmen turned out for the half-day, monthlong camp.

Harris said she hopes to double the number of attendees next year, largely through word of mouth of those who attended this year.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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