Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown learned Friday that it is never too early to start thinking about college.
The lesson was provided by students in American Studies 131: Active Citizenship in an Urban Community: Race, Culture, Power and Politics, in partnership with the University College of Citizenship and Public Service.
As part of their class, the students invited freshmen from Josiah Quincy to spend a day on the Medford campus to learn about the college experience. This is the event's fourth consecutive year.
The goal of the day, senior Nicole Mueller - one of the students in the class - said was "to prompt serious thought about attending college to a group of students who might not otherwise have really considered it."
Organizers planned a full day of activities, including ice-breaker games, painting the cannon, attending an a capella performance by the Jackson Jills and going on a campus tour.
Robin Coyne, a teacher at Josiah Quincy, said the day's schedule provided an appropriate diversity of activities. "It was a well put together agenda," she said. "It was well rounded."
Aside from their initial observation that the campus is large and their jokes about the small size of the dorm rooms, most of the Josiah Quincy students seemed to appreciate the visit.
Tufts is "pretty cool," Josiah Quincy student Xiao Mei said. "Maybe I'll come here."
The day gave Josiah Quincy student Jason Fong the same idea. "I would like to come here," he said.
Agatha Tong, a student support coordinator at Josiah Quincy who has been involved with the program since its inception, said the program is designed to encourage the Chinatown students.
Tong said she wants her students to see that college is about more than constant studying and that it will include opportunities for students to expand their interests in extracurricular activities.
Coyne said she agreed. "I hope they take away from it that they can all go to college," she said. "That it is accessible to all of them."
This was not the only opportunity that members of American Studies 131 have to interact with students in Chinatown. Students in the class must spend at least three hours per week on an internship in the area.
"The nature of the class is far more reciprocal than Tufts simply going into the community," said teaching assistant Jen Tyson, a graduate student in the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Department. "The students both give to and receive from the community throughout the year."
As part of this process, the class has two events planned for the spring. It will show a documentary about Chinatown and will make a presentation to the Chinatown community.
For now, though, members of the class are glad to see some progress in their work with the Josiah Quincy students. "Talking to them, it seems like college is definitely something many of them want to continue on to," Mueller said. "And I hope that spending the day at Tufts will have encouraged more to seriously consider it."
At least one Josiah Quincy student agreed with Mueller's assessment that Friday's events were about encouraging the high schoolers to pursue college. "That's the only reason we're here," Fong said.
