Kindergartners Off To College

College students are getting very young these days.

They are at Kid College, at least. Sixty-five kindergartners through sixth-graders - all the children of students at Spokane Community College - attended Kid College this week during their own spring break.

In past years, some of the same kids would have attended SCC, but they would have had to sit in on their parents’ classes or cope in the corridor outside their parents’ room.

Instead, they’re getting an education beyond what they might normally learn in grade school.

“On the count of three, let’s all say Janet Reno,” said instructor Carin Hilgersom.

“J-A-N-E-T R-E-N-O,” boomed back a room full of fourth- through sixth-graders.

Hilgersom, who lives at Newman Lake, volunteered to teach a Women in the World class for Kid College. She’s a full-time instructor at SCC, teaching speech, communication and women’s studies.

“I asked my son, who’s in fifth-grade, to name some famous women. He couldn’t name a single one,” Hilgersom said. So she created a mystery game, giving out clues to groups of students. Together the clues created profiles of such notable women as athlete Jackie Joyner Kersee, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Attorney General Reno.

Regular college students in Hilgersom’s Women of our World class were required to help or at least observe. On Friday, those students will take on the teaching - for the Kid College kindergartners.

Such collaboration is what built Kid College.

The day camp is a blessing for single mothers, who wanted something better than shepherding their children around campus to their own classes. Earlier versions of a spring break program for children died a few years ago.

Student and single mother Denise Jordan and volunteer Jocelyn Merhab sparred gently over whose idea had sparked Kid College.

“It was her idea,” insisted Jocelyn Merhab, smiling at Jordan.

“It was Beverly’s idea,” replied Jordan.

Beverly Walker-Griffea is the single parent counselor at SCC. She pulled together friends and contacts to make the program happen.

About 14 high school students are working as assistants for Kid College. They’re earning money for a trip to California through their youth group, which is connected with Phi Theta Kappa, a sorority for African-American educators. Merhab, who teaches in the Mead School District, is a member of Phi Theta Kappa.

Griffea managed to keep the cost down to $15 per child for the week. That includes lunch and two snacks. Kid College runs 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“Plenty of students here just can’t afford $25 for day care for the week,” Jordan said.

The schedule includes everything from writing and math activities, to simple recreation, to day-in-the-life presentations from police, reporters and cosmetologists - all using students or instructors from the college.

Monday morning, the younger children, including several from Valley schools, were working on writing and art projects.

“I lik tis class,” read one child’s paper.

Meanwhile, the older kids were impatient for their tour of the campus.

“We want to give the kids a chance to see what their parents are going through, going to college,” Griffea said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo