Brooklyn middle-schoolers get a taste of the college experience

March 30, 2007

Reprinted from the Daily Gazette , March 28, 2007

By Lee Coleman

Shawna Dominique, 12, a seventh-grade student from Brooklyn, said she has a different concept of college after spending two days at Skidmore College this week.

"I like the different courses that they take," Dominique said.

A group of 30 seventh- and eighth-grade students from PS/IS (intermediate school) 66 in Brooklyn attended classes at Skidmore on Monday and Tuesday.

They also met Skidmore President Philip Glotzbach and spent the night with Skidmore students majoring in education studies.

These same Skidmore student mentors had traveled to PS/IS 66 recently and observed classes and interacted with students there.

Joyce H. Rubin, chair of Skidmore's Education Studies Department, said the Skidmore students who have spent time at school said the experience was very positive, even "awe-inspiring." "It gives them an urban experience," Rubin said.

She said many Skidmore students attended suburban schools in affluent school districts and didn't know about high-needs schools like those in Brooklyn.

The same applied to the seventh- and eighth-graders at the Brooklyn school and their perceptions of college.

The informal Brooklyn-Skidmore program creates an exchange of learning communities, Rubin said. "We want those same kids to have a Skidmore experience," she said.

The students attended a variety of classes, everything from anthropology and writing to ceramics and dance.

Kyle Jean-Baptiste, 13, president of the PS/IS 66 student body, said he really enjoyed his visit. "I had fun," Jean-Baptiste said. "I like the students."

Jean-Baptiste said he thought college classes were "pure lectures." But when he attended the writing class he joined with a Skidmore student to write a profile.

The PS/IS 66 students also said they were thrilled when the Skidmore students came to their school to work one-on-one with students and observe classes in action.

"Wow, look at all those sophisticated people," was Dominique's reaction to the Skidmore education majors coming to her school.

Lucille Jackson, assistant principal at PS/IS 66, said the intermediate school is only 4 years old. It is an unzoned pre-kindergarten to 8th grade school created to address overcrowding in the New York City school system, with an enrollment of 650 students. It has also joined an initiative started by the school district in 2006 and is known as an "empowerment school." In exchange for more money and greater flexibility and control, principals of each empowerment school signed agreements that established performance standards and expectations, and consequences if goals are not met.

The students come from various parts of Brooklyn. Principal Joel Rubenfeld was a coordinator of gifted and talented students in New York schools before going to PS/IS 66, Jackson said. She said the school emphasizes the arts and enrichment programs such as sign language and drama.

The 30 students selected to travel to Skidmore College had to write a letter of interest and an essay, be on the school honor roll and then be interviewed twice. To their surprise, some of the students were able to keep up in some of the classes they attended.

Jackson said Jamal Morris, one of the students who attended a senior math seminar on Monday, was able to understand the discussion. When Morris asked a question, Skidmore math professor Daniel Hurwitz said "that's a good question," she said.

The students also attended history, basic ceramics, exploring the solar system and history classes during their two-day visit.

Rubin said the two educational institutions—PS/IS 66 and Skidmore—have some things in common: Both believe in the "democratic classroom and civic responsibility."

"Our entire school, we are able to work together," said 8th-grader Kyle Jean-Baptiste. "I look at it as a family."