Jamestown Public Schools fourth graders visited the State University of New York at Fredonia for a college campus tour. University and Jamestown officials said the goal was to introduce the young students to the idea of college and allow them to experience college for a day. The students visited various locations at Fredonia including the science center that is home to dinosaur replicas inside. P-J photo by Jordan Patterson

FREDONIA — Jamestown Public Schools fourth grade students took over the State University of New York at Fredonia during a tour Wednesday.

Students from Love Elementary School and Bush Elementary visited the Fredonia university. JPS was also at Fredonia on Tuesday and the remaining fourth grade classes will return in November for their scheduled visit.

“It’s an awesome opportunity for all the resources of the community to instill the value of education at every level,” said Alex Peterson, Busch school counselor.

She acknowledged that some might question why elementary students were chosen to tour the campus and not middle- or high-school students. Peterson said the objective is to introduce the idea of college as early as possible. She said the visit helps make attending college a reality in some of the students’ minds.

“We want our elementary students to see what’s at their finger tips,” Peterson said of Fredonia being located the same county as JPS. “It gives them something to work toward, something to grow toward and just knowing all that there is to offer.”

The students were bussed to Fredonia in the morning and spent the day visiting different buildings on campus in groups. The groups made their way into the library and the science center where many of the students were able to view the dinosaur replicas in the lobby of the building.

The groups were led by enrolled SUNY Fredonia students. Peterson said the student-led groups gave the Jamestown students the connection of life-long learning by observing older individuals who continue to advance their education.

“That’s really cool for them to get that perspective,” she said.

Peterson said the planned field trip was a reoccurring topic of discussion among the students leading up to Wednesday.

At Fredonia, Rebekah Conti, assistant director of pre-college outreach, greeted the young students in the Williams Center. Conti said the initiative of bringing Jamestown elementary students to campus is new this year. Fredonia recently brought Dunkirk City School students in the spring. Conti said the visits helps strengthen a working partnership with the Jamestown district as well.

“All of Jamestown Public Schools’ fourth grade classes are coming to Fredonia to experience college,” Conti said. “It’s sort of like a day in the life of a college student just to give them a frame of reference of what (this place is), Most of them haven’t been on a college campus before so there engaging with our college students and seeing the spaces that they are learning and living in.”

Conti said the visit helps the students think about their own futures and create excitement for education as the Jamestown students move through the ranks of their own district. Another benefit of the tour is creating role models for the children by interacting with the tour guides.

“As they move through middle and high school, it encourages them to aspire to go to college,” Conti said. “That’s really our goal here. It doesn’t have to necessarily be Fredonia. We want them to have a bright future and good perspective on what that next step looks like.”

During a JPS board of education meeting Tuesday, Superintendent Bret Apthorpe praised the district’s efforts to bring the college experience to the students. He said the visit aligns with the district-wide initiative of improving student achievement as a whole regarding college and careers after high school. Apthorpe attended the Tuesday visit and described the fourth-grade students admiring the campus architecture as their jaws dropped.

“When we think our kids, many of them come from homes where nobody in their family has been to a college,” Apthorpe said. “We’re creating that frame of reference for our kids is so important in that early age.”