When Jasper Place High School in Edmonton began shifting its attention away from competing for more students from its feeder junior high schools and toward better student retention, it found that the transitional process was the key to success. Jasper Place principal and counselors worked with their counterparts in the junior high schools to identify students at risk and to begin the transition process in the final year of junior high. Beginning in 2009, Jasper place offered these students access to a "success coach" in their Grade 9 year and offering them an opportunity to complete two compulsory high school courses during the summer before Grade 10. As a result, when they entered high school in September they had already experienced success, they had six credits in their high school portfolio, they knew their way around the school, and they knew key personnel. In many cases they were the leaders in those first few weeks.