ANSONIA – “O-H…” “I-O” That was the signal for Ansonia fourth graders to get up and move to the next college discussion group, as ten Ohio State University students talked about college to their young charges.

According to Beth Sears, executive director of Bridges to College, the OSU group – Access88 – offers early college awareness programs to schools throughout Ohio. They were at Greenville Junior High School last year.

According to Johna Uhrig, an OSU education junior from Chillicothe, and Dave Cody, economics senior from Dublin, the idea is “get kids excited” about college.

“We hope by talking to children at a young age, the seed will be planted and they’ll want to go,” Uhrig said.

The program is broken down into eight sections: Student Union, Lecture Hall, Laboratory, Residence Hall, Dining Hall, Bank, Academic Advisor and Library.

“We reference OSU because that’s where we’re from but we don’t push it,” Uhrig added. “We just want to say ‘here’s what college is like.’ They have 3,000 colleges to choose from.”

In the lab session, for instance, kids have an opportunity to look at a specimen in a microscope while the facilitator talks to them.

“What do you think about in a lab,” the OSU student asked.

“Making stuff explode,” said one fourth grader. Another said, “Creating stuff.” The facilitator said there are two types of labs: chemistry and biology… “In biology I get to work with live specimens, such as cockroaches and scorpions.”

Didn’t phase the kids in the slightest.

The college students spent the day at Ansonia, working with grades 4-6 in the morning, K-3 in the afternoon and having lunch at the Whistle Stop with the high school students.

“With the younger kids we take a more general approach,” Cody said. “We read a book to them, “I know I can!”

“This is what college is going to look like,” Uhrig added. “With the younger kids it’s more about what they want to do and college is how they get there.”

Uhrig has been on seven Access88 trips, adding that she has planned three of them and facilitated four. She noted student reaction is initially different depending on the area.

“We see them all across the board,” she said. “Once they become engaged they learn a lot.”

Best moment was when a little girl told her “I know I can be anything I want to be and I want to go to college.”

Published courtesy of The Early Bird