Kapi‘olani Community College has begun to see a rise in campus tour groups in the younger age range. There has been an increase in campus tours for middle schools.
Before spring break, Ewa Makai Middle School brought several groups of students on campus to experience and learn about college.
Other schools who have toured KCC – Waipahu Middle School, Jarrett Middle School and ‘Ilima Middle School – have already visited the campus.
Usually there are about 40 students or two groups that are split up, and one tour guide per 20 students, said Hae Lin Han, KCC ambassador for the campus tours program.
Counselors or teachers setting up tours can choose from different types of tours offered at KCC.
The general tour is what some middle schools have experienced. It focuses closely on deadlines and helps the students understand what college culture is.
Students visiting will be taken to ‘Iliahi, to learn student life and student activities. Then students will also visit the Lama library and can see diversity and well as why people go to the testing center.
Some of the questions the students have while touring the campus shows that they are still learning a bit about college life, Han said. Students have asked her questions like “‘what time is lunch?’”
“The concept of being an adult is kind of foreign,” said Han.
Some of the students are first generation college goers in the family, or some students come from an unstable financial background, Han also explained that the goal is to show students that college is and can be a tangible goal for the students, and that anybody can partake in it. Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is a program students at the middle schools are apart of. AVID is a college readiness system, which is for elementary and postsecondary students, according to the AVID website.
“For a lot of them it’s a really new experience,” Lydell Acosta, counselor at Ewa Makai and AVID coordinator said. “A lot didn’t know what to expect.”
Ewa Makai Middle School brought students who were in AVID classes, who have a GPAs from 2.0 to 3.5. Those are the students who have the potential to go to college someday, and even for those who may not be able to due to different circumstances, explained Acosta. It’s also a statewide program.
“We are a new school, we have four sections of AVID for 7th graders and three for 8th graders,” she said.
The tours and schools students go to differ depending on what grade they are in. Before the tour groups come to campus, a counselor from that school fills out the tour request form provided by KCC about what the interests will be for that group coming in, any specifications they would like to know about during the tour, date and time of tour as well.
In cases where there interest is in the nursing or EMT program, students will have the chance to see inside an ambulance and touch a mannequin used in the program for learning, explained Acosta.
Hands-on learning is what helps the students make connections.
“Students and faculty do a great job of making their program come alive,” Teri Mitchell, TRIO counselor and tour guide said.
Some of the tour focuses answer students question how to get into college, if there is student housing and explaining that college students choose to go to the library to study on their own.
“They ask, ‘how many books can I borrow?’” Han said. “Their lives up until college is about rules. College is more freedom, and what you want to do is your choice.”
Some of the students were surprised at seeing study groups and some college students sleeping in the library. Tour guides work with the students to help them understand in their language what college is about. Because they are younger, important deadlines are not focused on as much as it would for high school students, but more so what college is about, explained Mitchell.
“It really expands their ideas,” she said.