Editorial Note: Before the end of 2025, we’re highlighting a story from October that we didn’t get to publish earlier this year as a special bonus.
On Oct. 30, Desert View Academy 5th graders poured into Arizona Western College's Yuma campus for a day filled with learning and hands-on activities.
As part of a yearly tradition known as "I'm Going to College," students got a taste of college life through special class sessions, campus tours and a mock graduation ceremony to wrap the day. The students were separated into groups of different colors, receiving special t-shirts to help them stand out.
Each group experience was unique. While the red group had a “Science of the Mind" psychology lesson, the yellow group had a “Bugs in Your Soil” session, and the blue group had a tea lesson called “America at 250.. Here’s to Liber-TEA.”
In his "Algebra of Secrets" lesson, AWC Math Professor Brett Peterson gave kids a little magic show.
"What I really wanted to share with the 5th graders was how math can be used for things besides math. Because when I was growing up — the way I was taught mathematics — it was just a bunch of algorithms that we did and I never knew what it was useful for," he said. "And I found out I didn't like math so much when I learned it that way and then later on, I had a professor in college who opened my mind to what mathematics could be and not what I thought it was, and I just, I want to share that with as many people as possible because it, like many things, has its beauty when you know where to look."
The purple group enjoyed a special scavenger hunt in AWC’s library. That's because Outreach and Instruction Librarian Meghan Vickers wanted students to remember how much help is available at college libraries.
"I think for a lot of these kids, they either don't go to the library very often or they only think of the library as a place to read fun books, and when you come to college, that continues onwards," Vickers said. "Like you can read fun books and you can have fun here, but it's also a place where they can find information and new things. And for a lot of students who come in here their first year, they don't even know that there's a library here on campus.
"... so having students here who are already familiar with it will only encourage them to use the library and use our resources, and hopefully that will help them succeed in the future when they become students."
But what did the kids think?
"Today was pretty cool; it was my first field trip," said Gabriela Vivar. "My favorite part was definitely playing outside with my friends."
When asked how the day made her feel about college, she replied, "More positive about it. I thought college was just all about learning."
Damian Rodriguez really enjoyed playing Jeopardy and playing with friends during lunch.
"[I'm Going to College] made me feel excited about it and it made me determined to get into that," he said. "I want to, I kind of want to study technology and I'm mostly like a gamer so I would go to, I would go to compete in gaming stuff."
As a gamer, he was quite impressed with the college's e-sports opportunities.
Meanwhile, Alexis Ramirez shared that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Her takeaway lesson?
"If you pursue your dreams, you can do whatever you want and also that you can learn a lot of fun stuff in college," she said.
The teachers noticed a lot of benefits from "I'm Going to College."
"Something that sticks out to me that I observed that was probably the most beneficial was their exposure to the campus," said Jenna Mann, a Desert View Academy teacher. "Because a lot of them have never been on this campus before, and to see the opportunities that are ahead of them, both in the community college sector and also our three universities in Arizona, is such a benefit to them because they had no idea that all of this existed. So it's very amazing that they were exposed to all of this."
Jenny Ballou, another teacher, felt it was profoundly impactful.
"There's so much value in doing this for these kids. I had at least 10 of my students tell me that now they feel like they can actually go to college. Being here made them feel like they could go," she said. "College isn't, you know, sometimes on the table for everybody so the fact that AWC does this — it's not just about recruiting. It's not just about, you know, those dollars. They actually care about these kids and their future because they provide such an amazing opportunity."
And the excitement was apparent given the loud cheers kids were giving at the mock graduation ceremony which wrapped the day. Students received special certificates in actual AWC diploma covers to remind them that a college degree really is within reach.
Reporting for this article is supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
Note: Arizona Western College is KAWC's license holder.
