Glimpse of Life At MAPCS
MAPCS On the Move
“Preparing for college takes great effort and many different tactics,” says Katia Jones, a transition counselor at MAPCS who has been working with the Senior Class of 2007 and recently led a group of MAPCS students on a college tour to visit East Coast schools. “Exposing our students to the opportunities that are available can be eye-opening and sometimes make the work they are doing in class even more important than it already is.”
 With college acceptance letters and news of scholarship awards beginning to arrive for the Seniors at MAPCS, Jones says the annual college tours have become a critical step in helping students see the possibility of college education as a reality, and helps energize Seniors to make it over the last hurdles of high school and the college admissions process.
“We talk about and plan for college all the time, but for many of our students college is something that is very abstract,” says Nataki Reynolds, Principal at the MAPCS Evans Campus. “The tour provides a firsthand experience that makes it more real. For the first time, for many of them, there’s an expectation for life after high school. It makes the dream that we’re all talking about that much more real, and it helps us work with the students to plan for that kind of a future.”
Students from the MAPCS Evans and Shaw campuses teamed up for this year’s tour, taking two buses and traveling through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia to compare campuses at schools the students had expressed interest in attending, including the University of Richmond, the Citadel, Duke University, and Greensboro College. At least one student made up her mind, and says she is on her way to Greensboro in the Fall.
The students visited historically black colleges like Morehouse and Spelman in Atlanta, large public universities, and small private schools. All agreed that the Citadel made the greatest impression, with evidence of its intense discipline and military precision all around as the students toured the campus.
Justin Lane learned to mimic the way “knobs” walk to class at the Citadel, but says he’s pretty sure it’s not the life for him. He also says the college tour was a good opportunity for him to travel, see new places, and put some of his recent learning to action. When a tour guide at Duke University pointed out a statue of Martin Luther, Lane recognized him from his recent studies of the Protestant Reformation in History class. He says making those kinds of connections helped him feel like college was a logical next step for himself.
“I realize that it is going to be a real transition from high school to college,” said another student. “I am glad I got to ask specific questions that dealt with my issues.”
“The tour was a valuable experience for all that participated,” says Jones, noting that the students were able to adapt to the different norms at each school and represented themselves well in a variety of different situations at the schools and during their travels. She says the tour helped students see how much work college was going to be, but also how much fun it could be.
“The very first night of the tour was one of our scheduled study hall nights. As I walked around during the study hall time, I was impressed with the way that the students were working. It honestly felt like a college dorm. When the scheduled study hall time was over… it reminded me what the noise level could be in a freshman dorm when most people were done studying for the night.”
MAPCS Partners with PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools Program
With a namesake like Maya Angelou, it should come as no surprise that MAPCS holds the work, lives, and experience of contemporary writers close to its mission and values. Now, in partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools Program, our campuses have been hosting some of the country’s finest writers as classroom experts. So far this year, poet E. Ethelbert Miller, essayist Roger Rosenblatt, and memoirist Sonsyrea Tate have participated in the program at the MAPCS Evans Campus.
“Having the authors come into the classroom makes the books real for students and puts the notion in their minds that authors are real and very much alive,” says Evans Campus Principal Nataki Reynolds. “It allows them to ask questions about the text and about the writing process, and opens up the possibility of becoming writers themselves more real.”
Through the program, students receive personal copies of the author’s books in advance of the visit. They read the books, study and discuss aspects of them together as a class, and prepare questions to ask the author in person.
Students relate well to non-fiction stories like Roger Rosenblatt’s Man in the Water. Sonsyrea Tate’s recent memoir was also a big hit, says Reynolds. Many MAPCS students are accomplished poets themselves, and peppered local poet E. Ethelbert Miller with thoughtful questions about the craft.
Over the years, MAPCS has hosted a number of famous writers, from Maya Angelou herself to writers like Maxine Clair, Miguel Algarin, and Maud Casey. Reynolds says such exposure is critical to the literacy efforts at MAPCS, and notes that her students are also participating in the Reading Is Fundamental reading campaign and have been to see plays including A Raisin in the Sun and The Bluest Eye performed on local stages this semester.
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