Record number of fifth-graders headed to UW-Green Bay for Fall Tour Days
Green Bay – The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s award-winning Phuture Phoenix program will host its annual Fall Tour Days, Thursday and Friday, Oct. 13 and 14, welcoming a record 1,500 fifth-graders to campus for the start of a lasting relationship forged around the importance of education.
Fifth-graders from 27 elementary schools in 11 Northeastern Wisconsin school districts will visit classrooms, residence halls, the Cofrin Library and other parts of campus during the tour days. They also will connect with hundreds of UW‑Green Bay student mentors who volunteer as tour guides.
All invited fifth-graders and their teachers participate in planned activities and get to know their mentors in group settings. Phuture Phoenix Day is a coordinated effort to inspire academic success and alert children to educational opportunities beyond high school.
Students tour UW‑Green Bay and are invited into dozens of classrooms and lab areas for various experiments and activities. Some may learn new phrases in foreign languages or hear music students perform. They’ll meet coaches and play with members of the Green Bay athletics teams in the Kress Events Center gymnasium, turf gym and aerobics rooms.
The Phuture Phoenix program partners with schools with high percentages of students from low-income families and encourages students to graduate from high school and pursue a college education.
The UW‑Green Bay campus will host more than 1,200 students from Green Bay, West De Pere and Oneida Nation schools from 9:45 a.m. until 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. On Friday, Oct. 14, about 450 students from Sturgeon Bay, Oconto, Oconto Falls, Bonduel, Bowler, Suring, Menominee Nation and Abrams, will visit from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Phuture Phoenix program is not just a field trip; it’s the beginning of relationship that continues as these fifth-graders grow into teenagers. UW‑Green Bay Education students serve as middle and high school mentors, helping students prepare themselves for a college education. Hundreds of UW‑Green Bay students provide 9,000 hours of tutoring and mentoring in the middle and high schools, annually.
When these Phuture Phoenix students graduate from high school they are eligible to apply for Phuture Phoenix Scholarship Awards, at UW‑Green Bay, granted on the basis of need and prior involvement in the Phuture Phoenix program.
For additional information contact: Phuture Phoenix Program Director Mary Sue Lavin at (920) 465-2992, lavinm@uwgb.edu/. For media interviews, contact Sue Bodilly, bodillys@uwgb.edu.
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