News and Events
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Students Learn Green Concepts
Through a partnership forged by the P-12 Project, students from Cranbrook Elementary in Columbus City Schools learned about sustainability and environmental preservation by working with the Ohio State business operations department. Ohio State staff met with Cranbrook students throughout the year to engage in green activities, such as planting trees on Arbor Day, decorating paper bags used at a grocery store on Earth Day, and recycling more than 12,000 plastic bottle caps. At the end of the year, Cranbrook students visited the campus. The partnership is one example of how the P-12 Project connects Ohio schools to the university.
LiFE Sports Career Day
LiFE Sports Career Day provided approximately 450 underserved youth in the greater Columbus area with a fun, informative college and career day on June 25, 2009. This program allowed Ohio State’s LiFE Sports camp participants to learn the steps to get to college, both academically and financially, and allow participants to gain experience in an actual college classroom. Joyce Beatty, Senior Vice President for Outreach and Engagement, welcomed the campers, and Nancy Nestor-Baker, director of the P-12 Project, was the keynote speaker.
LiFE (Learning in Fitness & Education) Sports is designed to foster social competence among youth through their involvement in sport, fitness, and educational activities. The program serves approximately 600 predominately urban and underserved youth from the greater Columbus area during a 4-week summer day camp. Campers participate in a variety of sport and education activities throughout each camp day, which are infused with curriculum targeting the development and enhancement of social competence (i.e., self-control, effort, teamwork). Camp participants have the opportunity for daily interaction with Ohio State students, student-athletes, and teachers from the community; transportation to and from camp; and breakfast and hot lunch. Ongoing programming efforts are also coordinated through the Boys and Girls Club of Columbus throughout the school year.
Ohio State’s Department of Athletics, in partnership with the College of Social Work, the Department of Recreational Sports, and the Boys & Girls Club of Columbus, provides youth development programming on the Ohio State campus for underserved youth in the greater Columbus area. Additional partners include the Department of Physical Activity and Educational Services, Undergraduate Admissions/First Year Experience, Economic Access Initiative, The P-12 Project, and the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Safety, Health, and Nutrition.
This year the following academic programs and departments hosted students on Career Day: Animal Science, Center for Automotive Research, Dental Prep Institute, Engineering, Geography, Greenhouse, Insectory, International Studies, Linguistics, OSU Airport, PAES/exercise science, Plant Pathology, Planetarium, School of Music, Sports Medicine, Stadium, Turfgrass Science, Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, Wexner Center, and Wonders of Our World. The LiFE Sports program was supported in part by a 2009 Excellence in Engagement grant from the Office of University Outreach and Engagement.
Projects in Progress
2008-09 Partnership Summary
This publication documents Ohio State involvement with schools, school districts, or school-age children and youth. The P-12 Project is now collecting information for the next edition covering the 2008-09 school year. Ohio State faculty and staff involved in school partnerships: please complete the online form to report your partnership activities. For earlier editions of the summary, see the Resources page.
Seniors to Sophomores
Ohio State is one of six higher education institutions partnering with Columbus City Schools on the Seniors to Sophomores program, a dual enrollment option that prepares high school students to complete their senior year requirements and their freshman year in college at the same time. The participating institutions—Ohio State, Ohio University at Pickerington, Ohio Dominican, Franklin, Columbus State, Capital (year 1), and Otterbein (year 2)—are members of the Columbus City Schools Higher Education Partnership (CCS/HEP), a coalition formed in 2002 to improve access, retention, and competition of postsecondary education for CCS students.
The 21 CCS students in the 2008 cohort Seniors to Sophomores program came from 10 area high schools. They attended college full time during their senior year while also completing the courses required for high school graduation. Ohio State hosted two students, both of whom have continued at the university. In 2009, Seniors to Sophomores participants included 25 high school seniors from 11 CCS schools; three are taking courses at Ohio State. In August, they completed a summer orientation at Columbus State. “The idea of the orientation is to create a bridge and improve the process of transitioning so these students can be successful in college,” said Nancy Nestor-Baker, director of the P-12 Project and CCS/HEP liaison. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to earn a year of college credit at no tuition cost, and for us to work on curriculum alignment between P-12 education and colleges in Ohio.”
- Seniors to Sophomores Initiative Flyer (PDF, 155KB)
No Excuses University
The goal of the No Excuses program is to help create a classroom environment that supports success in learning and inspires students to think about going to college aspiration. The P-12 Project developed relationships with classrooms in elementary, middle, and high schools in California, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. Teachers were sent boxes of age-appropriate items, such as Ohio State pencils, banners, bookmarks, sports team posters, and college access information, including Know How to Go and Make College Happen items.
Project Updates
Blueprint:College
Blueprint:College is a collaboration led by The Ohio State University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience with assistance from other campus partners, including the Economic Access Initiative, the P-12 Project, and Columbus City Schools. It is aimed at helping elementary school parents learn how to turn their children’s dreams for college into a reality. The 2008 pilot program, which served 42 families, was expanded in 2009r to serve 113 families and 250 elementary school students from 11 underserved schools. The program includes a welcome dinner, six weekly workshops, a campus visit, and a “graduation.” In the workshops, parents learn about the benefits and requirements of going to college. They create academic plans for their students, fill out sample college admissions and financial aid applications and learn to use college scholarship resources. While parents participate in the workshops, children attend age-appropriate "College Camp" sessions in which Ohio State undergraduate students lead them in age-appropriate activities including role playing, learning about careers, and designing study spaces. To make it easier for families to attend, the program also includes weekly dinners prior to the workshops, child care, and bus transportation. Data show positive improvement in parent understandings of and beliefs about college.
- Raising Parent Awareness and Expectations through Effective School-University Partnerships: presentation by Nancy Nestor-Baker, Amy Wade, and Diane Ging for the Ohio Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (PDF, 760KB)
- Blueprint:College Overview (Word document)
- More information >
Higher Education Partnership
A presentation by P-12 Director Nancy Nestor-Baker at the 2008 Outreach Scholarship Conference describes how this consortium of 10 universities is working with Columbus City Schools to address P-16 issues in urban education:
- The Higher Education Partnership: Building an Effective Multi-Institutional Consortium (Powerpoint, 116KB)
- Higher Education Partnership Agreement
- HEP Update
- HEP Workplan
- College Prep 101 (PDF, 1MB)
- HEP website
Baseball Day
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. Stories and photos in the Partnerships section.
