College Day is a community-wide effort spearheaded by the volunteer-led First Generation College Attainment Coalition. San Jose State University hosted a College Day Family and Community Conference on October 19, 2013, for all Santa Clara County students, mostly high school students and their families, to gather information about college application and financial aid availability and application. However, students don’t need to wait till they are in high school to think about college, so College Day organizers reached out to all Santa Clara County K-12 schools, urging them to participate in College Day activities. Each teacher received a class poster about College Day, a sticker for each student, and a flyer about the SJSU College Day Faire on October 19th.
Schools in the Sunnyvale School District offered different activities for their staff and students on October 11, College Day this year. Many schools made it a spirit day with staff and teachers wearing their college gear and sharing with students the colleges they attended, while others encouraged students to wear the gear of a college they would like to attend someday. Sunnyvale Middle School AVID students learned about colleges some of their teachers attended and decorated their classroom doors with their college colors as a surprise.
This is only the third year of College Day. The hope is more K-12 students will be informed of the benefits of having a college education and be motivated to consider college as their post high school plan. In addition, their parents will receive helpful information to help guide their children toward attending college after high school.
Information from www.collegeday.org
Article by Nina Wong-Dobkin
