The topics they chose for their research projects are typically something they've found lacking in their own schools. They feel that there is now a responsibility on them to become potential agents for social change.

One of the reasons SCOPE reaches students so early is to get to them before they have to take the SAT, and it is early enough that they can recover academically or still take the courses they would need to take to get accepted into college.

It's a 24-7 program for us. We're always calling or e-mailing students to keep in touch. We continue to talk to them about college admissions, what classes to take, how to find financial aid, and similar issues.

Very few people want their property condemned. They're not against schools. They're not against redevelopment projects. They just want it to be somewhere else.

The projects we fund are in conjunction with the administration of the two schools, the superintendent and the school board. We're also trying to work with the Parent Teacher Association. It makes no sense to be in competition, and we're much better (now) at doing that.

Many of the other Big Ten schools are engaged in similar preparedness projects, most notably the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan have pretty well-thought-out plans at this point.