More than 100 students and parents filled the library at Hazelwood Central Middle School for the latest Middle School University (MSU) session.
Led by Sharon Anhalt, District college and career counselor, Audrey Wittenauer, family involvement coordinator, and Peggy Hull, a college and career consultant with Superior Support Services, MSU is an interactive series of parent workshops. They are designed to teach middle school students and parents about the importance of starting college preparation and how families can start now. Fifth grade students and their parents are also encouraged to attend.
“These parents were so engaged and involved in tonight’s program,” said Anhalt. “Several of them told me that they were looking forward to the next session. I was thrilled to see the number of families who attended. They are so invested in their children’s education.”
On a bookshelf near the windows, parents and students took copies of flyers about career-related summer camps in the engineering, medicine, culinary and law fields. Anhalt also provided parents and students with an article on the top careers in 2011. Parents who attend MSU will develop increased knowledge of the relationship between setting goals and ensuring a successful and positive educational future for their children. Parents can also network informally, sharing information others may not know about.
“I found out about MSU from the District e-blast,” said Henry. “I thought it would be cool. I read it and RSVPd immediately. We’re trying to found something that interests him,” she said of her son Elijah, who is in eighth grade at Hazelwood North Middle School.
Elijah said he originally wanted to be a surgical nurse until he realized it involved cutting people open and looking at their insides.
“I just want to help people,” he said.
Monica Henry said that so far, they have visited college football games at historically black colleges to let her son sample the college sports atmosphere.
“We’ve been going to college fairs for four years so I’m a pro at this,” he said.
During spring break, she said she plans to take him to visit universities with strong academics, such as Tennessee State, Fisk, Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical University in Nashville, Tennessee.
MSU highlights the relationship between reading and children’s academic success. Parents and students will study, learn and have fun together. Hull passed out an activity, a seek-and-find puzzle containing 12 occupations, for parents and students to complete together. Winners received small prizes. Parents also received surveys to complete, worksheets for researching occupations with their children and sample career plans.
Anhalt gave examples of student successes, such as Hazelwood Central High School senior Luther Banner’s recent acceptance into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this fall. In addition, Anhalt said she sponsors an alumni chat, where former HSD students return to talk to current students about their experiences and what it takes to go to college. She said one of those former students graduated from Hazelwood East High School, attended MIT, graduated and went on to become an architect and a civil engineer. He has designed two middle schools.
The MSU program links to a HSD Value – “We will commit to implementing innovative solutions while dismantling ideas that are no longer working for students.”
The next MSU session will take place at Hazelwood North Middle School, 4420 Vaile Avenue, on February 9. By the end of the school year, there will have been MSU sessions at every District middle school. To RSVP or for more information about MSU, please contact Audrey Wittenauer at (314) 953-5190 or e-mail her at awitt@hazelwoodschools.org