Grade 7 and 8 students with the Avon Maitland District School Board are getting a look at life in college and university this spring.
Project Lead Dennis Mueller says the hope is that the field trips will allow students to experience all pathway options early enough to be able to make informed decisions for their senior course selections in high school.
Mueller says Grade 8 students have already started visiting Fanshawe College. They get a brief presentation and then a tour of the facility.
Grade 7 students will go to Wilfrid Laurier University in May for the Junior University Multidisciplinary or JUMP Program.
Funding for the program comes from a grant awarded to AMDSB called Ensuring Equitable Access to Post Secondary Education, with a mandate to eliminate barriers for students to attend post-secondary institutions.
"They can kind of choose three different university type programs and the teaching faculty actually delivers those programs, so they've had a lot of success over the years just exposing kids to what things might be like at university," says Mueller.
