For half of the class in Inman Health Science Building room 341, it is their ninth hour of school. Restless students thumb through their 640-page Cracking the ACT manual.
“Do not be afraid. Do not get discouraged,” said Adjunct Professor Rene Rochester. “This is a practice test, and we need it as a diagnostic to know where we should focus for you.”
Belmont is sponsoring an ACT prep class for high school juniors and seniors, many of whom hope to enroll at the University in the next two years. Rochester leads the two-hour class, and high school students work one-on-one with Belmont students. They meet three times a week until Dec. 8, the day students take the ACT.
“I wanted to be a mentor because I remember when I was applying to go to college and preparing to take the ACT. I just want to share lessons from my situation and extend resources to help these students achieve their greatest potential and all that they want to achieve,” said Robert Wallace, a senior from Nashville majoring in business administration.
Chosen from more than 30 applicants, 22 high school students have enrolled in Belmont’s free ACT prep program. Most of them attend Hillsboro, Big Picture and Martin Luther King Jr. high schools.