“It’s Showtime at PVAMU.” That was the theme for this semester’s Elementary Partnering School Day. It could have been the theme for HISD Day a few weeks earlier. That’s because, for both programs, close to 2,000 students came to visit “The Hill.”
“This was our first-ever HISD Day for the Houston Independent School District,” said Dr. Talitha Lewis, director of Strategic Partnerships and K-12 Outreach. “Approximately 600 students, parents, faculty, and staff signed up to come visit Prairie View A&M University on November 4 to learn about the campus and our eight colleges and schools. For Elementary School Day on November 17, it was our third time putting on this event, and a little over 1,500 students from 35 schools in our 19 partnering school districts participated.”
Some may ask, what is the benefit of events like these? According to Lewis, they get young minds thinking about college life, so by the time they get to high school, they know what college is and what to expect.
“Some of my student volunteers from the Student Partnerships & Outreach Team (SPOT), National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and the National Society of Black Engineers graduated from a partnering school district. They were excited to help and lead these kids into coming to PVAMU like they did,” said Lewis.
The Office for Strategic Partnerships and K-12 Outreach plans to hold another Elementary School Day in the spring, as well as a Middle School Day and a Leadership Conference.
“We, as a department, are looking forward to our continued growth at PVAMU and our growth with our partnering school districts. We will continue to work hard and do what we set out to do almost two years ago.”
PVAMU has a total of 19 partnering school districts, but it is in the process of finalizing agreements with the Houston and Cy-Fair Independent School Districts.
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-This story by Marchita Shilo originally appeared in Academic Insights.