JMU's College of Business and Hart School of Hospitality, Sport & Recreation Management Hosts 8th Grade Academy

On Saturday, November 12th, JMU’s College of Business and Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management collaborated to host a full-day interactive college visit for our pilot 8th Grade Academy youth and stand-out 7th graders. This was not your ordinary college tour!

The morning started with a session led by professors from the College of Business and the Cyber City program. Our youth learned a computer program called Scratch and designed their own computer games. One youth, Mikey, said this about learning Scratch, “The coding games were my favorite and we got to make our own coding game. Also, visiting JMU was really awesome.”

After everybody’s favorite part of the day (always!)- lunch at D-Hub and a trip to the JMU bookstore- Mr. Miguel Baltazar, Professor for Hospitality Management and OTRC Board Member, led a bingo game that helped our youth learn the wide variety of careers you can do within hospitality like management, hotel attendant and cooking. One youth, Lubna, commented that her “favorite part of the trip was bingo. Also, the teachers were really nice!”

The last session of the day was led by Mrs. Tassie Pippert, Professor for Hospitality Management, and was the sweetest way to end the college experience- prepare brownie mix to take home and bake! Sonya shared that “I liked the second part where we made brownies and played bingo. The teachers were nice and energetic.”

Interactive college experiences are an important part of our work at On the Road Collaborative because it helps our young people learn about future college and career options and build the confidence and vision to achieve them.

Huge thanks to all our partners who made this college visit possible.