Scott Redd stood in front of a group of fifth-graders, urging them to hold onto the folders he was giving them like their lives depended on it.
"The folders," which held information sheets on getting into college, "are your key to a million dollars," he said -- because college graduates are expected to make a million dollars more than high school graduates during their lifetimes.
It was the first time Bryn Mawr Community School in Minneapolis has organized such a visit to the University of Minnesota, where Redd is the coordinator of community relations in the Department of African American and African studies.
Minneapolis Public Schools organized the trip for the 50 fifth-graders, to get them to raise their sights toward college and start thinking about it early.
"Some of our students don't really see themselves as ever going to the U of M," said Cedrick Frazier, assistant director of the Office of Equity and Diversity in the district, who helped Principal Renee Montague organize the trip. "We want them to see that this is where they're supposed to go after high school."
"This" doesn't necessarily mean the U of M, though many of the kids were professing their desire to be Gophers by the end of the day. "This" means college, no matter where it is.
Throughout the day, the Bryn Mawr students heard U students talk about college life. They also talked to student advisers, took a campus tour and rode a campus bus over the Mississippi River.
"It was kind of cool to see where I'm going to go to school," said 11-year-old Reggie Markert, who said her parents are alumni of the U and think she's destined to go there, too. "You get much more independence at the U" than at Bryn Mawr, she said.
