College or bust for fourth graders

By Alyssa Winn

Texan News Service

Big dreams are brewing in the minds of Stephenville fourth graders as they research and learn about different colleges they want to attend. College Week is part of the curriculum for students throughout the Stephenville Independent School District. At Hook Elementary, staff members are stressing the importance of college and career throughout the year.

Hook Elementary fourth graders individually made a list of the top ten reasons on why they plan on going to college. The fourth graders in the gifted and talented class also researched information about a college and put what they learned on a poster.

The walls at the elementary school are lined with many different colors representing colleges and universities such as Tarleton, Texas Tech, University of North Texas, University of Texas, and others.

Student Claire Caskey said she wants “to go to one of the Pittsburgh colleges because I’ve heard a lot about it from my cousins and I think it will be a good college.”

Claire Caskey posing with her poster

Hook counselor Angela Withers said she wants to make sure students understand the importance of college not just their dream college.

“I thought this was a great way to reach out and not necessarily study about a college that they wanted to go to, but to dig a little deeper,” Withers said.

Jade Wilson is making plans for her career after college.

“I want to be an engineer for NASA,” she said.

Withers also said the school is emphasizing the importance of college throughout the year. “We build upon year to year, it started out as posters on the wall, then we started adding announcements, researching material and information,” she said.

The fourth graders showed their posters and t-shirts and talked about why they wanted to attend a certain college.

Kathy Haynes, the principal at Hook, said the fourth graders often get excited when they talk about their college plans.

“After we talk about colleges a little bit and they start studying the posters and if they are really into something, like veterinary medicine, they really start to get excited,” she said.