Kids Around the University (KATU)
If kids do not know college exists, they cannot build it into their vision of the future. The Kids Around the University (KATU) curriculum, materials, and activities introduce elementary students to the idea of higher education. The KATU curriculum features a colorful student-authored book that has been widely adopted by elementary teachers across the Monterey Bay region as well as teacher training and tours of the UC Santa Cruz campus. Our goal is to start building college awareness and motivating students to dream big at earliest grade levels.
Eight years ago, the fourth-grade students at Aromas Elementary School started asking questions about college but found little information about college opportunities that was age-appropriate. Together with their teachers and parents, the inquisitive nine- and ten-year olds set off to visit local colleges and write a book to educate their peers about going to college.
What began as a small classroom project dealing with pathways to college soon developed into a bilingual publication that over the years would serve thousands of students. At UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College, the students interviewed college students, faculty, and university staff. The result of their information-gathering is the Kids Around the University book, a 30-page guide to college in both English and Spanish. The book introduces children to four facets of higher education:
- The university is a “school bigger than your school.”
- The people and services make the university work.
- A typical day in the life of a college student.
- A “life map” for young students to help them being thinking and planning about higher education.
A companion teacher guide offers 30 lessons about motivating students to go to college, using the student book to imaging college life, and visiting and writing about experience on a college campus.
Download a recent article about a KATU alumna (PDF)
For bulk orders of the book or to learn more about the curriculum, contact:
(831) 459-3500