Local elementary students visit Centenary College
October 28, 2016
SHREVEPORT, LA — Sixteen 4th and 5th grade students from Shreveport’s Shreve Island Elementary recently visited Centenary College and got a sneak peek at college life during a campus tour that included a special moment with Centenary President Christopher L. Holoman.
The students visited Centenary as part of Bridgette Crooks’ fall intersession class, “College and Career Readiness.” Shreve Island follows a year-round schedule with an extended break in September and October, and students have the option to take unique courses during the intersession.
“I have worked with high school students in the past, and they struggle with knowing what they want to do after high school,” says Crooks, who currently teaches 5th grade ELA at Shreve Island. “I thought that Intersession would be a great opportunity to teach students about options for their future. My main goal was to help them see that there are so many opportunities for them that hard work can get them very far in life.”
Before the students toured college campuses, they used an interest inventory to help them pick out a career path. In at least one case, a student changed her mind about a potential career based on a first-hand experience during Crooks’ class.
“We had a student that decided she wanted to be a ‘Hospitalist,’" says Crooks. “She based most of her choice on the salary, but after visiting one of the programs that had bodies, blood, and injuries, she got a little woozy. She told us that she decided the hospitalist career was not for her, and that she wanted to go into drama.”
Crooks’s students also did research about Centenary’s academics, athletic teams, and traditions and made colorful banners displaying their results. The banners are now hanging in the College’s Sam Peters Admission Building to greet prospective high school students and their families when they come for their own tours.
“We loved hosting Shreve Island students on campus and hope they enjoyed their experience at Centenary,” says Katie Chopin, Recruitment and Events Coordinator for Centenary’s Admission Office. “It was also personally special to me as a Shreve Island alum!”