It’s never too soon to learn. So on October 24, 50 eager fifth graders from Seattle’s Dearborn Park Elementary School experienced life on the SPU campus. They investigated the physics of sound, participated in a library research activity related to their social studies curriculum, and enjoyed skill-building games led by Health and Human Performance students in Royal Brougham.
They also learned about the college application process, toured the campus, and enjoyed lunch in Gwinn.
“The students were engaged,” reports assistant principal Chad Kodama. “They were excited. They couldn’t sleep the night before!”
A visitor to Dearborn Park would understand this level of anticipation. Since kindergarten, these students have seen the photographs on the school’s walls, showing each year’s fifth graders posed on the Peterson Hall steps in colorful “Going to College” T-shirts. Fifth grade teacher Karley Weinstein points out that her students also use the planning activities and resources in SPU’s “Going to College” workbook for weeks before the event.
“They’re talking about college every day,” she says, “and they learn a lot about college before going.”
Twenty-five SPU students served as hosts for the day, sharing their own experiences and helping their guests imagine themselves as future college students. Ana Morel, an SPU freshman exploring a teaching career, says she especially enjoyed spending time with two young students. Although getting fifth graders to talk might have been hard at first, she says, “they started opening up as the day went on, and especially at Gwinn.”
Besides a chance to positively influence young lives, this is one of several on-campus programs offering valuable, pre-internship experience for SPU’s future teachers. And the School of Education seeks internship placements in partner schools with greater diversity and higher needs, like Dearborn Park. SPU interns can then make a difference where it is needed most, while getting a richer, more rigorous teacher preparation. Their careers may very likely be spent in more diverse settings than their own K-12 experiences -- especially in terms of culture, first language, socio-economic status, or ethnicity.
“Ninety percent of our students are not exposed to what going to college means,” says fifth grade teacher Don Dorr. “This program plants a seed for them that we can help nurture and grow throughout the rest of the year.”
Beginning to envision oneself as a college student also helps students realize the importance of decisions they make now, and guides them in selecting sixth grade or middle school courses that open an academic path toward college. It helps them maintain the motivation to succeed. In fact, SPU enrolled its first Dearborn Park graduate as a freshman two years ago.
“We’ve been doing this for 10 years now,” says Dearborn Park PE teacher Ed Adams. He has helped coordinate the program from the beginning. “Every fifth grade class says it is the best field trip they’ve ever had.”