In 2014, Ile Omode took its largest group of middle school students yet on a college tour. Twenty students from 6th to 8th grade visited over 7 colleges in less than a week. Students visited Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark-Atlanta University, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Alabama State University, and Tuskegee University.
This marked the fourth college tour, and the second tour to Atlanta, Georgia and Alabama (the other two were to Washington, DC). Generally, there are two consecutive trips and then a break year to ensure that each middle school student experiences two out of state college tours before they begin high school.
Beginning in 2009 with 9 excited and anxious students (and none more anxious than the trip’s organizer), each trip has seen the numbers rise - literally in concert with the school’s growth.
The trip remains affordable to every family at the school, and the trip’s total cost in 2014 was $825 per student, which included all meals, transportation and lodging. So parents remain delighted, but it is the enthusiam of the students that continues to make these trips essential.
DeWayne Lewis (6th) was excited about visiting Morehouse College in Atlanta. “I wanted to see the school for myself since I’ve heard so much about it”. He’s now definitely planning to apply to the college.
The gravity of the middle school college tours is in the numbers; nearly 60 students have had the opportunity to experience HBCUs as well as other colleges and historical monuments that they otherwise would not have seen.
Spotlight at Ile Omode
Middle School's College Tour
College Tour to Atlanta, Tuskegee, and Birmingham in 2014