College seems like a distant future for the North Graham Elementary School fifth graders, but Elon Academy Ambassadors recently introduced them to the possibility of continued learning.
“Is college something you have to do?” asked John Pickett, assistant director of Elon Academy and director of the ambassadors program.
“No,” students said.
“What is college?” Pickett said. “It’s a — I heard somebody say it — it’s an option, a choice.”
North Graham students took a break from the ordinary on the morning of March 1. Third, fourth and fifth graders attended a college fair at the school library where nine high school sophomores from Alamance County presented information about nine different colleges in North Carolina. Additionally, Pickett talked to students about what they had learned that day.
Elon Academy brings rising sophomores in high school to Elon University’s campus for the summer after being accepted to the program.These high school students assume the role of Elon Academy Ambassadors, ensuring students who aren’t in the academy still receive some of the benefits of the program.
“Really, if you want to promote positive feelings and attitudes toward college with families that have no history of college, (freshman year of high school) is too late to start,” Pickett said. “So our approach is to address these issues as early as possible.”
Elon Academy debuted its new Elon Academy Ambassadors program at North Graham Elementary this month. The new program targets younger students to foster positive attitudes about college and begin the dialogue about higher education early.
“Some people may think that talking about college with a kindergarten class is not really a good use of time,” Pickett said. “But we feel that if you come from a family with a history of college attendance, before that child is even born, there are attitudes about ‘yes, this child’s going to college.’”
The college fair was one of the last events in a month-long partnership with the Elon Academy Ambassadors, said Tracy Perkins, curriculum facilitator at North Graham Elementary. The partnership with the Elon Academy Ambassadors program has been a positive one, she said.
“College and career awareness begins in kindergarten because if those teachers at the K-12 levels don’t lay a foundation, they’re never going to be ready,” Perkins said. “We look at it as a team effort to get our children ready, and by providing information early on is just a stepping stone.”
The students involved in Elon Academy recognize how important it was to share what they’ve learned through Elon Academy with younger students.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Khalil Poole, an Elon Academy Ambassador and sophomore at Graham High School. “It gives you a chance to learn more about college and at the same time, you get to teach younger people about it, and I think the most exciting part is the fact that they ask questions and they ask questions that you don’t even expect little kids their age to know.”
Pickett said he hopes the ambassadors will take what they’ve learned from this first experience and apply it to their upcoming visit to Graham Middle School.
“Our scholars are going in here and they’re motivating the elementary school students because some of our scholars have even been to some of the elementary schools that we are visiting,” Pickett said. “So they’re kind of living proof that you can go to this school and you can go to middle school and high school and go to college.”