Green Bay Area Public School District building. (IMAGE: Courtesy of Fox 11 WLUK)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Like just about everything this year, field trips for Green Bay high school students to check out potential college programs of interest have gone virtual.
“Pre-COVID, students would actually go on to the campuses themselves, in the facilities, see where various career paths might take them, they would get to meet with the professors, see the kinds of things that they would do, the requirements or things they should be thinking about in high school,” said Interim Director of College, Career & Community Readiness Curt Julian.
But those in charge of the program say the lack of in-person adventures to NWTC and UW-Green Bay isn’t all bad.
“I think we’re actually able to reach more students than we may have in the past. We’re able to attract the attention of more students and get more students to have this opportunity. In the past, they would have to take time away from the regular school day to go out there and a lot of students just weren’t either willing or able to accommodate that,” Julian told WTAQ News. “It’s a little bit more accessible to them, so we’re looking at not just targeting students that are signing up on their own accord but we’re also looking at students who have expressed any kind of interest…It isn’t incredibly time consuming. If they have even a little bit of an interest, it’s well worth their time and effort to just tune in. If nothing else, they’ll kind of get an idea of what the program is about.”
Students are able to interact with professors and instructors, as well as students who are currently in the college programs who can explain their own experiences.
“The high school students that are tuning into these virtual meetings are being given the opportunity to ask questions…[we] type them into a chat room kind of area and and then either the students that are part of the program already or the professors will then answer the questions to the best of their knowledge,” Julian explained.
High school students grades 10-12 are also able to see demonstrations of different exercises and activities that they would be engaging in, were they to enter those particular programs.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to really explore different areas that they’re interested in,” Julian said. “Not maybe as well as if they were there in person but we tried to have each of the different areas and show some of the different things that the students would be using.”
The trips addressed areas including Public Safety, Health Sciences, Business, and the Common College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. The final ‘trip’ is set for Wednesday, December 2nd.
Students should visit the Green Bay Area Public School District website for more information or to register.
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