The benefits of college are well documented. The path to college has been extensively highlighted. But local educators say too many students don”t expect to attend college.
Thursday”s countywide College and Career Fair, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Trotter Convention Center, is the next step in an ongoing effort between local school districts and the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link Education Committee to create next-level expectations among high school juniors and seniors. The effort is bankrolled by a $2.5 million Advanced Placement Incentive Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
“We”re trying to increase college-going awareness, increase students who take advanced placement courses and we”re targeting students whose parents have never gone to college,” said Caroline Fields, advanced placement coordinator for Caledonia High School and one of the fair”s organizers.
The college fair will put Lowndes County schools, Columbus schools, private schools and home-schooled students in contact with local business people who have parlayed their college degrees into successful careers, as well as representatives from 18 colleges. Helping students make the connection between college and career prompted the fair”s theme: “20/20 Vision: Seeing Your Future.”
“We want to promote a college-going culture in our schools and we want our students to seriously consider their careers,” said Edna McGill, assistant superintendent of curriculum for the Lowndes County School District. “And we want them to see this community has many opportunities for successful careers.”
To prove its point, the fair has enlisted Tommy Howard, president and CEO of Sqwincher, and Sara Labinsky, owner of Front Door/Back Door restaurant, both located in Columbus, to speak to students about running a business.
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith and Mississippi Senator Terry Brown will cover politics. Columbus Police Chief Joseph St. John and 16th District Attorney Forrest Allgood will discuss law enforcement.
Students will be bused to the Trotter to hear from speakers upstairs before meeting with college representatives downstairs. The API grant will pick up the tab for transportation, but the Link is sponsoring the fair itself.
The bulk of the $2.5 million grant, which will be administered over three years, is being spent to place advanced placement coordinators at local high schools to funnel students into more rigorous courses, as well as providing tutoring to those students, a summer AP preparation camp, professional development for AP teachers, field trips and to administer the PSAT test to all local ninth-graders this fall.
Gayle Fortenberry, AP coordinator for Columbus High, says the grant, which was conceived and written as a partnership between Lowndes County and Columbus schools, doesn”t pay the salary of AP teachers. It does, however, promote AP courses to get students acclimated to college-level course work.
“The state College Board has to certify teachers to teach AP classes, so we have an automatic connection to college-level information and materials,” said McGill.
Columbus schools report 66 percent of its 2009 graduating class moved on to either a two-year college or four-year university. New Hope High School saw 85 percent of graduating seniors move on to college and Immanuel Center for Christian Education sent 100 percent of graduates to college.
Fortenberry says local districts will have a better idea which freshmen are most and least prepared for college after the PSAT is administered in the fall.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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