Beginning this Saturday, the University of the Virgin Islands’ University Bound Program in collaboration with Alpine Securities, USVI will once again offer SAT Preparation Courses to high school students in the St. Thomas / St. John District. The program will get more students ready by the first round of college applications nationwide. The goal of the program is to help Virgin Islands high school students boost their SAT scores.
The first Boot Camp program, for high school juniors and seniors, will start with a practice SAT exam on Saturday, Oct. 14, and will continue with both Math and English lessons every Saturday for five weeks. The official College Board SAT Exam will be administered on Saturday, Dec. 2.
The second, 10-week program will begin on Saturday, Dec. 9, with the final exam taking place on Saturday, March 9. Both programs take place at the University of the Virgin Islands’ Orville E. Kean Campus on St. Thomas.
Many Virgin Islands students do not take a mock exam before taking the real SAT. University Bound’s free SAT preparation program will incentivize students to familiarize themselves with the SAT test and practice regularly to ultimately increase their SAT scores. Past Alpine SAT Prep students have raised their SAT scores by an average of 60 points after participating in the program.
“We at Alpine believe it is imperative to invest in the young people of the Virgin Islands,” said Vernon Araujo, Alpine’s director of Philanthropy and Community Relations. “We are excited to partner with University Bound and the University of the Virgin Islands to empower our high school students with the proper resources and opportunities to reach their full potential.”
"I applaud Alpine Securities for their commitment and generous contributions to enhancing the education of the youth of the Virgin Islands, and I am very grateful to Alpine for affording the University Bound Program another opportunity to offer an SAT course to students in the STT/STJ district," said University Bound director Rosalia Rhymer-Rohan. She continued, "The goal of this course is to assist students in improving their SAT scores through a variety of educational tools, mock exams, test-taking skills and strategies, provide techniques to reduce test anxiety, build confidence and develop familiarity with the test. The course is designed to prepare students to perform at optimal levels on the National SAT. I strongly urge college-bound juniors and seniors to register for this worthwhile opportunity. Each student will be asked to submit a $50 deposit which will be refunded upon completion of the course. It will be a wise investment of time in yourself."
University Bound’s SAT Prep Program is open to Virgin Islands High School juniors and seniors in the St. Thomas-St. John District. The most driven participants will earn prizes, including gift cards, and the Texas Instruments TI-84, a graphic calculator that is commonly used during the SAT and in advanced math classes in college.
Students can register online using this link: https://forms.gle/p1f7rMRJTbFPLMkk8. More information can be found at https://www.uvi.edu/student-success/upward-bound.html.
For more information, please contact pr@uvi.edu.