| She got a “taste” of what it’s like to be on campus recently, and that has Iniah and her fellow Compton School classmates looking forward to the day they are college students.
About 80 fifth- and sixth-graders made their way to Walsh University for a “Taste of College,” one of the Canton school’s service-learning projects.
Educators say one of the best ways to get students to think about college is to get them on a campus, or into a college class.
“By shadowing our students throughout a typical day on campus, we’re hoping to expose these young students to a taste of college life, encouraging them to seek the opportunities a college education provides,” said Dr. Kimberly Metz, an assistant professor of psychology at Walsh. Metz is heading up the project with Dr. Shauntey James, assistant professor of sociology.
And although the Stark Education Partnership reports that more Stark County residents are becoming the first in their families to attend college, there are factors affecting a freshman student’s success, including the ability to adjust to the college environment.
Dr. Sylvera Greene, principal of Compton, said it’s all about giving the Canton City students “a vision” of what college is like.
“Some of our kids have never been on a campus,” she said. “So this (Walsh project) was an opportunity for them to meet a tangible person. They came back completely excited and started to think of some fields of interest, and asking, ‘What can I do in the future?’ ”
The Compton children shadowed students in Walsh’s human development and sociology classes, attended presentations and had lunch in the university’s cafeteria.
Greene said she would like to see the partnership with Walsh continue, and possibly include a tutoring program for Compton students.
Metz said Walsh students, in turn, get to participate in service learning, and explore themes they are studying in the classroom.
“The experience,” she said, “is just as valuable to our students.”
Reach Repository writer Melissa Griffy Seeton at (330) 580-8318 or e-mail:
melissa.griffy@cantonrep.com
Repository Michael S. Balash
COLLEGE LIFE Kelly Gallagher, a nursing student at Walsh University, has lunch with Iniah Dunbar, a fifth-grade student at Compton School in the Canton City School District. Dunbar shadowed Gallagher as part of a service-learning project at Walsh dubbed a “Taste of College.”
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