College and Me
1994; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 76; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-6487
Autores Tópico(s)Indigenous and Place-Based Education
ResumoIf GARRETT Community (GCC) in McHenry, Maryland, sent out a press release with the headline Nontraditional Student Population Rising at no one would bat an eye. But if the heading went on to say, That's Because Every Fifth-Grader in the County Is Enrolled at the eyebrows would surely arch. College and is an experimental program being conducted at GCC, a small public community college serving rural Garrett County, Maryland. Located at the westernmost extremity of Maryland, Garrett County relies on farming and tourism to support its year-round population of 27,000. Like most of Appalachia, Garrett County has lagged behind the rest of the nation on various socioeconomic indicators, particularly those pertaining to educational attainment, such as percentage of graduates attending college and percentage of students graduating from college. and Me is a response to an initiative of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which wanted to promote higher education in rural areas. In 1988 the Regional Education Service Agency, an educational consortium serving the four counties of western Maryland, applied for a grant from the commission that would allow each of the counties to develop an early intervention program to foster a positive attitude toward college in middle-grade students and their parents. The ultimate objective would be to increase the number of youngsters earning high school diplomas and proceeding on to college study. Garrett County received $34,750 and developed and Me, an inexpensive program that could easily be exported to other small rural communities. In Garrett County, as in many rural communities, there is a great need for such intervention. At Garrett Community College, for example, 80% of the students are the first in their families to pursue a higher education. To the sons and daughters of affluent, highly educated parents, a higher education may seem an entitlement. But many of these first-generation college goers lack the family backgrounds that make attending college seem appropriate for young people. and Me intervenes in order to cultivate family support for sons and daughters seeking a higher education. The Program To participate in Me, each fifth-grade class in Garrett County visits GCC for one week. Students are bused each morning from their school to the college and are returned to their school at the end of the day. During the week spent at the college, the students' regular classroom teacher instructs them in their usual subjects -- but, in addition, students participate in special enrichment activities that are conducted by faculty members of the college. While students are at the college they have access to resources such as the library and gymnasium, and they can engage in informal conversations with college students in the cafeteria at lunchtime and during campus tours. At the end of the week, the fifth-graders and their teachers receive a and Me sweatshirt, courtesy of Bausch and Lomb. The special enrichment activities are designed to stimulate students' intellectual curiosity and to encourage their creativity. The college faculty members provide students with a wide variety of educational experiences. Drawing on her participation in an archaeological dig in Caesarea, Israel, Beth Hurley, an assistant professor of history, leads students in an archaeological excavation of a large sandbox that conceals artifacts she has buried. The director of the GCC library, Dana Shimrock, sends students on a treasure hunt through the card catalog. Jim Allen, the director of technology at GCC, guides students as they engineer the construction of a bridge. Artist Edna Bender teaches a class in oil painting, and Tony Artice, an instructor of physical education, demonstrates and teaches tae kwan do to young martial arts enthusiasts. In Nancy Priselac's Math Think, students build a mathematician's game board. …
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