Junior high and high school students experience college life through Jumpstart
A select group of Metro Detroit junior high and high school students got to glimpse into the future and explore what life is like as a Wayne State University college student this past July thanks to the Office of Community Engagement@Wayne.
The Office of Community Engagement@Wayne invited 66 8th through 10th graders to come live on the Wayne State campus and participate in its annual weeklong event College Jumpstart, which ran July 13-19.
Jumpstart is designed to expose underprivileged students to higher education and career paths.
Students were informed of current admission standards and financial aid requirements on their first day of Jumpstart. During the week, they participated in college courses with staff and faculty, learned new study skills, were given information to help them prepare for the A.C.T. exam, and created 70 craft kits for patients at Children's Hospital as their community service project.
"The foundational assumption of College JumpStart is that students will go to college," said Monita Mungo, Program Manager at Community Engagement@Wayne and the creator of College Jumpstart. "Based on that, career options are numerous. Instructors talked about the types of classes in high school that are needed to prepare for the classes in college and subsequent career choices."
Additionally, they received the chance to act as defendants, plaintiffs, prosecutors, judges, and jurors in a mock trial. They also took Marketing 101 with Nicole Lewis, Vice President of Global Marketing at Kelly Tires, and took political science with local attorney Teresa Patton.
According Mungo, 15 Wayne State University undergraduate and graduate university students served as chaperones or "college positive mentors."
"They were marvelous," exclaimed Mungo. "Each had a skill set that enhanced our activity schedule."
Mungo also had a staff member from the College of Education volunteer for two days during the week.
The students attended the following classes in addition to Marketing 101: French, Physics, Writing Law & Leadership, Information Literacy, Psychology, Sociology, Introduction to Social Work, a time management class, and A.C.T. Prep. They also attended six information sessions: Learning Communities, Mental Health, Math Success, ACT Test-taking strategies, character building, and Greek Life (fraternities and sororities).