Homer Alaska - Letters

Did you know that, on average, a college graduate makes a million dollars more over the course of a lifetime than someone who do not continue her education after high school? This was only one of the things that surprised us on April 15, when we, along with about 60 other fifth- and sixth-graders from Chapman and West Homer schools, became college students for the day at the Kachemak Bay Campus of the Kenai Peninsula College. As part of the "I'm Going to College" program, we attend classes in Alaska history, psychology, probability and marine biology.

While visiting KPC, we learned many interesting things about a variety of subjects that could be our majors when we get to college. We learned that while the academics in college are very important to getting a good job in the future, the college experience also is about learning social skills, networking skills and other skills we will need to be successful adults living on our own.

This trip to KPC really motivated us to think more about college and to start thinking about how we will pay for it. Some of us are going to set up a savings account and get summer jobs. We will keep working hard in school and with our athletics and extracurricular activities, like student council and Battle of the Books, so we can maybe earn scholarships. We were happy to learn about the different options for getting help paying for college.

We also learned that we don't have to know exactly what we want to be before we enter college. At KPC, we heard from many people who changed their major and even changed the college they were attending before they found the program that was right for them.

We want to thank everyone at Kenai Peninsula College, the Alaska "I'm Going to College" program, and our teachers, Ms. Little and Mrs. Johnson, for preparing the field trip and inviting us to it.

Alyssa Rawls, Kenny Cortez, Justin Ellison,

Katrina Appelhanz and the rest of the Chapman fifth- and sixth-graders