This year Ripon College and Ripon Middle School joined forces once again to offer Think College Early, an interactive and fun learning experience about how to prepare for post-high school education. “Making goals about what you want out of your high school experience can help prepare you for all of the great options you have when you graduate,” says Emelia Erickson, this years’ Think College Early coordinator and Ripon College junior, “and there are so many options—the sky’s the limit!”
Eighth-graders and their families who participate in Think College Early attend two evening sessions focusing making the most out of high school classes and extra-curricular activities, what colleges, tech schools and the military are looking for in applicants and listening to first-hand experiences from high school students, college students and professionals in the community. The program culminates with a visit to Ripon College where students sit in on a real college class, take a tour of the residence halls and, of course, spend time in the cafeteria chatting with current college students. “This years’ students were awesome,” says Lindsay Blumer, administrator at Ripon College, “they attended a lecture on the structure and influence of hip-hop, lived the life of a college student for a day by eating at the cafeteria and got to see what college is all about.”
Think College Early is an annual collaborative program between Ripon College and Ripon Middle School. For more information contact Todd Arft at Ripon Middle School.
