College Prep Talk

 Today we spoke to a group of 12^th graders from Dominique Johnson’s enrichment class at Mercer University’s Upward Bound Program.  After dividing the students into groups, they were asked to come up with a name before answering a series of questions. The names for some were predictable while others were completely random. We then asked the students to pull out three sheets of paper and put their team’s name on top of each sheet.

Question 1-How many colleges and universities can you name?

Clark Atlanta University, MIT, Yale, FAMU, were just a few of the many that were named. One team named over 40 schools in two minutes. They were all working together actively and had more than one person writing names at a time.

Question 2-How many professions can you name?

 Zoologist, OB/GYN, F.B.I. agent, nurse, lawyer and computer programmer were some of the names listed for that question from all the groups.

Question 3-How many countries can you name?

Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Egypt, England, Chile, and Japan were some of the names for that category. It was clear that these students were quite aware of colleges, professions and countries around them.

They were very receptive of the group activity and interested in learning more about college life. Tonja spoke to the students about her alma mater Fisk University. And students asked some really great questions about what they should expect in their college experiences.

I very much enjoyed speaking with the students, answering their questions and hearing their thoughts, opinions and goals for lives after high school.

Wonderful Kids!

Valerie Simmons

Program Assistant