NORFOLK, Va. – When the Norfolk State University Department of Athletics first instituted its summer bridge program for incoming freshman student-athletes this past summer, its goals were to give its incoming athletes a head start on their academic requirements and get acclimated early to college studies.

Thanks to the hard work of NSU's academic support staff, the Spartan Success Center and the athletes themselves, the program is off to a rousing start. The athletics department's first class of summer bridge participants was comprised of 20 student-athletes who took either three or six credit-hours apiece. The group combined to pass 93 credit-hours with a 3.43 cumulative grade-point average.

The bridge program was paid for through grant money NSU obtained through the NCAA's Limited-Resource Institutions Grant Program Pilot. The department – one of six nationally that received the grant – will receive a total of $330,000 over a three-year period to improve its academic performance. The summer bridge program is one key component of NSU's three-pronged proposal. The others include hiring additional academic advisors and acquiring more funding for athletes to attend summer school.

"The Department of Athletics is very fortunate to receive funding from the NCAA to initiate the athletics summer bridge program. This initiative will help the department to improve the Academic Progress Rate (APR) for our athletic teams in order to meet the new NCAA standards," NSU Athletics Director Marty L. Miller said. "We anticipate this program growing to a level at which we will be able to bring in all of our new student-athletes during the summer period in order to get them prepared for college academics."