Eleven-year-old Journee wants to be a lawyer when she grows up. Ten-year-old Leshawn wants to be a doctor. Kannani, also 10, wants to be a judge.
The fifth-graders from Fairmount Park Elementary, a public school on the corner of 41st Street South and Fifth Avenue South, know they’ll have to go to college to reach their goals. And after visiting USF St. Petersburg on Friday, Oct. 10, for a field trip organized by the Everyone’s Education Club, the jewel by the bay is at the top of their lists.
“I wish it was high school so I could come here twice,” Journee said, in between bites of penne pasta with marinara sauce from the Reef.
Though a student named Kianna winced after a “bad bite,” the fifth-graders all agreed the Reef food was better than their school’s. The soda was a special treat.
Before lunch, Fairmount’s fifth-grade classes rotated through four 30-minute activities around campus.
In the Fitness Center, they hula-hooped, jumped rope, stair stepped, stretched bungee cords and occasionally broke out into hip-hop dance moves.
In the Harbor Hall auditorium, the Broadway Bulls, a recently established improvisation group on campus, read and acted out “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein. After the performance, some of the fifth-graders got a chance to test their improv skills, miming actions in sync with the story.
Providing the science lesson of the day, Deby Cassill, a USFSP biology professor, invited the children into her lab to study her acclaimed ant farm. Students studied ants magnified on computer screens while Cassill gave a quick lesson. She explained that male ants die after mating but “with a big grin on their faces,” which roused a few chuckles from the kids.
Outside on the basketball court, volunteers coordinated dodgeball games with soft foam balls, facing the children against their classmates, their teachers and counselors.
Later, everyone participated in a drum circle on Harborwalk and visited Bess the Book Bus, which gave a book to each Fairmount student. They received another book in their goodie bags that also contained treats from Harborside Activities Board and a bookmark from the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library.
Angela Wilson, president of the Everyone’s Education Club and a College of Education senior, organized the field trip. Planning required recruiting volunteers, making arrangements with other campus organizations, securing funding from the county to bus nearly 100 students in from Fairmount and getting the Reef food paid for by the College of Education. Since the funding was not being used for USFSP students, she couldn’t go Student Government to obtain it.
“It was our first event ever and I went all out,” Wilson said.
Many of the Fairmount students were familiar with the USFSP campus. Last summer, the “Bridge to Success” program hosted a day camp for Fairmount students, as part of an effort to unite USFSP with the community.
news@crowsneststpete.com
