Life Lessons From the Big Kids at CSUN

Attending classes on campus at Cal State Northridge has been such a good experience for sixth-graders at Community Charter Middle School that school officials would like to see the experience repeated.

The founding class at Community Charter, the San Fernando Valley’s first charter middle school, spent the opening six weeks of the current school year on the first floor of CSUN’s College of Education. Classes were held there because the school’s permanent facility in San Fernando was not ready in time for the first day of school.

Impressed by the positive influence the college students had on the younger pupils, school founder Jackie Elliot, a former Los Angeles teacher and administrator, said she would like all incoming sixth-graders to attend classes there at the start of the school year.

KARIMA A. HAYNES asked several of this year’s class, all 11-year-olds, what impressed them most about attending school on a university campus.

MICHAEL GABRIEL COX

Pacoima

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It made me feel special. We know that the teachers at my school and the dean at the college care for us.

A lot of the college students came to my classes. They got their bachelor’s degrees in science and math, and now they are moving on to jobs in computers, science and technology. They asked who wanted to be in science and computers. I raised my hand. They said it was going to be hard. I already knew that because I watch some of the science and technology shows on TV. I know you will have to spend four or five years in college.

Sometimes I stayed after school to work on computers when I was in the fourth and fifth grade to help other kids. This year, I lent my notes to another kid in science class because he wasn’t listening in class and he needed help.

MYON SAMPLE

Pacoima

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It influenced me not to be scared of bigger people. I got used to being around them, and it wasn’t anything new for me after awhile. I was excited to see big people with backpacks going to class.

I had never been to a college campus before. Being on campus made me feel like I really could do this. The best thing was that I got to play on the computers.

EDWARD DEL RIO

San Fernando

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It felt nice being on campus because you get a lot more room and there are places to play.

At first, I thought the college students were teachers in training. I kept forgetting we were on a college campus, then I remembered they were college kids getting an education.

I asked [college students] if it was hard, how long it would take them to graduate and if it was fun.

CARMEN ALVARADO

San Fernando

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On the first day of school I felt weird. I didn’t know that many kids; then later, I knew all of the kids.

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I still want to go to college.

I liked going to the college because we got to see how it is going to be when we grow up.

YOANNA TORRES

Lake View Terrace

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It made me feel special because we were the youngest ones on campus. It was crowded, we felt small, all the people that were going by we had to look up into their faces.

In a way, it made me feel like I wanted to be one of the people passing by. I wanted to be on the college campus for more than just a month.

To get to college you have to work hard and study a lot. Now I know I have to study to get into college. It’s really real now.