Middle Schoolers Experience Life at College Level

Students from Kirby Middle School participated in College Day at Northeast Lakeview College on May 15. The students took a tour of the college and attended sessions that included prepping for and paying for college, a student panel titled “What do You Know About College” and Reality Check, a hands-on computerized tool that asked questions about future lifestyle and expectations and calculated how much the person will have to earn to meet these expectations.

Kirby Middle School, in NLC’s service area, was identified as a middle school with a significant number of students who do not go to college. “We want to promote a college-going culture to these underserved students,” says Philip Hicks, a student services professional and coordinator of the Kirby College Day. By providing these middle schoolers with the college experience before entering high school, Northeast Lakeview College hopes to get the students thinking about college early so that they can plan and be better prepared for college.

Additionally, students currently attending the Judson Early College Academy (JECA), the early college high school housed on the Northeast Lakeview College campus were participants in the student panel discussion. Some of these students are former students from Kirby Middle School and shared their experience as college students in the early college high school program and provided insight on how to become better prepared for college and the importance of higher education. JECA students take high school and college courses simultaneously and upon graduating, will earn both a high school diploma and a college associate’s degree as well as a letter of acceptance to a four-year university to continue their education.

This is the second time Northeast Lakeview College has hosted this college experience for Kirby Middle School students.