Emily and I sit in the common area of the student union, trying to hear over the sounds of the busy mid-day crowd. We have both brought a brown-bag lunch; Emily opens a blue Tupperware to reveal a rice dish she has made in her residence hall kitchen, and I have a bagel with cheese. She looks out the large window and points to a picnic table on an outside patio: “Th at’s where I studied during the summer program. I wanted to be outside all the time, in our study hours. Th at was the best part.” We are meeting to talk about her experiences in a summer bridge program, a three-week intensive program aimed at preparing low-income students for college life. “It was like boot camp,” Emily continues. “Th at’s why I went outside aft er classes and everything, to try to relax.”