Over three days recently, the average age of students at one Metropolitan Community College-Kansas City (MCC) campus dropped by several years: Every sixth-grader in Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) attended college for a couple of hours thanks to a program called Kids2College.
The idea behind national initiative Kids2College is to inspire a college-going culture at a young age, especially among low-income and minority students.
This excerpt comes from the AACC 21st-Century Center.
From March 20 to 22, 1,042 sixth-graders from 21 Kansas City schools visited MCC’s Penn Valley campus in midtown Kansas City. In morning and afternoon sessions, students embarked on tours of the campus with three stopping stations.
On the first morning, for instance, one stop introduced a robot from MCC-Penn Valley’s Early College Academy. Another put sixth-graders on stage for an improv exercise. And in the Penn Valley gym, there were demonstrations and hands-on activities from campus programs such as visual arts, graphic design, nursing/surgical technology and early childhood education.
Kids2College is one of many equity and access initiatives that the college offers, according to MCC Chancellor Kimberly Beatty.
“Programs like this are opportunities for young students to have a college-going experience, but they also learn that a quality college education is available in their backyard,” Beatty said. “We can show them that college is affordable and attainable.”