1st Generation College Tour Event

The+University+Of+Colorado+Boulder+is+pictured.+This+is+where+the+students+ventured.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Dooley.

The University Of Colorado Boulder is pictured. This is where the students ventured.

It’s April 13, around 12pm and the sun is shining brightly on The University of Colorado. 10 Silver Creek High School students stand beyond the front gates and gaze upon the building. The university has never felt closer. The students eagerly follow the tourists inside.

Thanks to the sponsor of the tour, Maria Neil, a fellow Spanish teacher at Silver Creek High School, 10 students were able to take a trip to The University of Colorado Boulder on April 13 right after PSATs [Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test].

Neil was able to pre-arrange the tour event with multiple professors that taught at the school and Ernie Flores, a counselor at Silver Creek. The tour was made and hosted because Neil, Flores, and many other teachers wanted to normalize college for the students so they would feel more comfortable when attending it.

The thought of going to college for high school students seems like a long term goal but in reality, college is a lot closer than most students believe. They were able to see a lecture hall in action and a classroom full of college students in the afternoon in the middle of a lesson.

They had a hands-on experience of what a college classroom would look and feel like. It was very eye opening for the students when they realized that college was a lot more personal than highschool was.

Seeing how the students approached their classroom and professor changed some perspectives on college as a whole. The professor was able to make many connections between the students like how the college students were working on bigger projects than the high schooler and how the high schoolers looked up to the students.

It gave a different point of view for the high schoolers, which was the goal for the trip. Most students couldn’t fully decide or didn’t plan to go to college at all before the trip but by the time it was over they were looking forward to progressing and working hard enough to make it into the University of Colorado Boulder.

Ernie Flores said, “for us teachers and counselors it was a sense of empowerment for our students.” The teachers felt proud that the students were working harder to get into the college and work hard for an improved future along with a career.

One student that was able to go show this on the tour is Alizee Macias who is a senior at Silver Creek High School.

“I felt happy too because I could see this in my future if I did the work,” Macias stated. Macias now wants to work harder to actually enter the school after getting a closer look of how college really was.

She continues to state, “My first couple of feelings were encouraged”

Alizee’s expirience with the tour was enjoyable and special. She felt inspired and wanted to focus on entering the college more after she realized that it was personal and that she could work on things for herself rather than multiple things for multiple classes like in highschool.

These types of events can open a student’s eyes to college and what they could offer. It can change a students mind entirely and even encourage them to attend when they had no plans of doing so. The University College can also help students settle for a career and pursue the job of their dreams.