CORRECTIONS APPENDED BELOW:Students in Brandeis' Transitional Year Program were honored last month during a special day of events for their participation in the 39-year-old program.

TYP Senator Shaina Gilbert spearheaded TYP Day, held Feb. 15 in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, in order to inform the campus about TYP, which admits about 20 outstanding students from disadvantaged backgrounds each year to live and take courses at the University in preparation for becoming official students. They take math, humanities, social, physical and computer science courses as a group, as well as one regular undergraduate class. The students also receive one-on-one academic advising.

"These students are among the most inspiring people I know," Robert Andrews, associate director of admissions, said about TYP students, whom he helps recruit, at the event.

These students have overcome incredible adversity in their home communities, Andrews said. Some had to hold down full-time jobs while in high school, while others became entangled in gangs, witnessed murders or gave up children for adoption, he said.

TYP students mostly come from schools that do not have the same resources as wealthier, suburban schools, like Advanced Placement courses, according to the program's Web site.

"My goal was to make Brandeis aware of the strong community we have in TYP," Gilbert said in an interview. "My vision for the day was to celebrate TYP's legacy and history and show all students the incredible contributions of TYP students who have become Orientation Leaders, Community Advisors, been in shows and are on many E-boards of clubs."

TYP alumni and current students and TYP supporters gave speeches and artistic performances during the day. A new logo for TYP was unveiled-the letter "B," standing for Brandeis, wrapped in a streamer with "TYP" written repeatedly on it. Gilbert said the logo will give the group greater visibility and make it more recognizable to people.

Smith spoke during the event about TYP's founding. The University decided to establish TYP following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, she said. In 1968, faculty raised $12,000 for the program that she said helps alleviate "separate and unequal educational opportunity" for students who are of "equal caliber of other members of the Brandeis community."

Taisha Sturdivant (TYP) presented a poem, "The Life of a TYP Scholar," in which she described her experience getting to Brandeis. "TYP is hard to describe because being studious was always part of [her] vibe," she recited, despite teachers' doubts she knew that she "could fit in with ease, not a community college, but a university of prestige."

TYP participant from 2002-2003 Satarra Davis '07 said in her testimonial: "TYP has changed my life in so many ways. I am living proof of a person who grew up without family, lived in extreme poverty, but was determined to obtain a college degree and has benefited from such a program."

William Chalmus '07, who participated in TYP, presented a rap song, "A Bad, Bad Man," about his personal triumph over the temptations of gangs and drugs.

Ariella Silverstein-Tapp '09, who is not a TYP scholar or alumna, credited the strong bonds she had made with TYP scholars for helping her remain at the University.

Gilbert said she's not sure if TYP Day will be held again in the future, but suggested that the program might do something different next year for its 40th anniversary.

Corrections: A statement was inaccurately attributed to Erika Smith that should have been attributed to Robert Andrews. He said during TYP Day that TYP students have had to overcome incredible adversity. The faculty raised $12,000 to start the TYP program, not $12 million, and they did not raise it going to door-to-door, as was originally reported.