Nearly 500 middle school students from Angevine Middle School in Lafayette are heading to the University of Colorado Boulder on April 27 and 28 to get a taste of college life.
The sixth- and seventh-graders will do hands-on science projects, visit the CU-Boulder Museum of Natural History, participate in dance workshops, and watch a rousing theater production about the U.S. Presidents. Faculty and staff from the museum, Science Discovery, the Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community, and the Department of Theatre and Dance will be leading the sessions.
The , a dropout prevention and college-prep program for low-income youth, worked with CU-Boulder’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement and the Office for Outreach and Engagement to coordinate on-campus activities.
The foundation provides daily after-school programming and support to about 400 Boulder County students from second grade through high school, and helps these “dreamers” achieve their goals of going to college, said Hansen Millison, a college coordinator for the foundation. This campus visit includes all sixth-and seventh-graders at Angevine.
“The goal of our "Expanding the Dream" initiative is to extend the services of I Have a Dream to a larger group of students, rather than just our dreamers,” Millison said. "We want students to be thinking about college now, so they can make progress on their college goals as soon as they start high school."
CU-Boulder’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement hosts about 40 campus visits each year for many different organizations across the state and also works with the foundation to sponsor a summer internship and residential program, said Chris Pacheco, pre-college director in the diversity office.
“By the end of this semester we will have hosted approximately 2,500 elementary, middle and high school students from as far north as Fort Collins and as far south as Alamosa,” Pacheco said. “It gives them a glimpse of what college life might be like but, more importantly, it gives them a chance to put voice to their dreams.”
Contact:
Chris Pacheco, christopher.pacheco@colorado.edu
Julie Poppen, CU-Boulder media relations, (O) 303-492-4007, (M) 720-503-4922
julie.poppen@colorado.edu
Hansen Millison, hansen.millison@ihaveadreamboulder.org
