Partnership Development
Baseball Day
The Ohio State University continues to partner with Columbus City Schools (CCS) to promote higher education aspiration and access. Each year, Baseball Day brings more than 3,000 sixth-grade students and staff from the Columbus City Schools to campus for an educational pep rally followed by a Buckeye baseball game. In its fourth season, the program is designed to show young students that college can be a real possibility in their future and inspire them to stay in school in order to achieve this goal.
This program has become extremely useful in building urban students’ knowledge and opportunity to excel in school. Students must maintain a 95% attendance rate between January and May, have no suspensions, and have completed all portions of the Sixth-Grade Achievement Tests to be eligible to attend. If they have three discipline referrals (three strikes), they are also “out.” Baseball Day is an integral part of the Columbus City Schools district plan to increase graduation rates. Since 2004, graduation rates have increased from 60% to 72.9%.
Each year many departments at The Ohio State University as well as external organizations come together to create this large-scale event. Participants have included the Athletic Department, the P-12 Project, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience, the Economic Access Initiative, University Communications, Army & Navy ROTC, Transportation & Parking, the Schottenstein Center, the Athletic Band, The Ohio State University Cheerleaders, the Ohio Union, the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, Sodexho, Kraft, PageTech Limited, I KNOW I CAN, Know How 2 Go, Columbus City Schools, Children’s Hunger Alliance, the Diamond Club, and numerous Ohio State student athletes and other students.
Baseball Day was profiled in the publication Success for All Students: story (PDF, 279 KB); full document (PDF, 4MB).
2009
The 2009 edition of Baseball Day featured members of Ohio State ROTC rappelling from the ceiling of the Schottenstein Center, a science demonstration from COSI with exploding pop bottles, a message of encouragement from Young Scholar/CCS graduate Zel Caldwell, and a math quiz, game-show style, hosted by Jonathan Baker, chair of the Mathematics Department at Columbus State Community College. Lunch and a baseball game completed the day.
Slideshow on the CCS website >
Photos
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2008
The 2008 CCS Baseball Day was held on Tuesday, May 13. This year’s theme was REACH HIGHER. Approximately 3,000 students, representing 80% of the sixth-grade students from 30 schools, attended. Special guests included Columbus City Schools superintendent and CEO Dr. Gene Harris, current student athletes, Alumni Association president/CEO Archie Griffin, the OSU Band, cheerleaders, and Brutus Buckeye. The featured entertainment was magician and motivational speaker Jon Petz. Gene Harris also introduced the district's newest inductees into Ohio State’s Young Scholars Program, a statewide initiative to prepare students from underserved urban school districts for college. Students were given lunch, compliments of the Children’s Hunger Alliance, and the day finished with a baseball game between Ohio State and Buffalo in Bill Davis Stadium. During the game, selected students threw the first pitch, performed the national anthem, acted as public address announcers, and met members of the media in the press box.
Photos
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2007
Columbus City Schools (CCS) students visited the Ohio State University campus for “Baseball Day” on Wednesday, May 16, 2007. More than 3,000 sixth-grade students and CCS staff attended an educational pep rally in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium followed by a Buckeye baseball game vs. North Florida at Bill Davis Stadium. The sixth graders were welcomed to campus by the Ohio State cheerleaders, mascot Brutus Buckeye, and members of the Ohio State band. CCS superintendent Dr. Gene Harris, student athletes, and students representing Young Scholars and "I Know I Can" encouraged the sixth graders to study and work hard and to think about and prepare for college. A special part of the pep rally included a rescue demonstration by ROTC with a helicopter landing on the field. The Ohio State students taking part represented various majors and potential careers.
Photos
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2005 Photos
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