BENTONVILLE -- Spencer Villiers crammed in five classes over the past four weeks at Northwest Arkansas Community College. Villiers didn't earn any college credit, but the Lincoln Junior High School student learned a lot.
"The classes are very hands-on," he said.
Villiers was one of about 150 students ages 9 through 16 at Kids College last month. The program wrapped up Friday after offering classes on culinary arts, robotics, technology, history and politics and arts and humanities.
Some students took more than one class, with an average of 50 children participating each week, said Stacy Reagan, account executive for business development at the college. She oversees Kids College.
"We want them to see what the college is like," Reagan said. "We also want them to have learning experiences over the summer."
The program exposes students to the campus, which makes the college a more likely choice for them when they consider post high-school options, she added.
About 90 percent of Northwest Arkansas Community College's 7,715 students enrolled in the 2017 fall semester were from Benton and Washington counties.
Exposure to campus often plays a role in helping a student decide which school is the right choice, officials said earlier this year. It helps familiarize them in a new space.
"The visit is huge," Hannah Bradford, director of admissions at John Brown University, has said. "If the student doesn't visit, they [likely] won't come."
John Brown offers four subjects in its Summer Academy, which is designed for high school students. The Piano Academy was held in June. The Engineering, Art and Design and Photography academies will be held in July. All are a week long.
Educational summer camps at the University of Arkansas are hosted by respective colleges. For instance, the College of Engineering held camps for first- through 11th-graders throughout June and will continue in July, according to its website.
Villiers said his favorite class at Kids College was Design with InDesign where participants produced a newsletter. They learned journalism practices by interviewing other Kids College students, taking photos, writing articles and designing their work in InDesign, an Adobe publishing software program.
Katlyn Davis, an incoming Bentonville High School sophomore, wants to become a chef and took an advanced cooking class.
Students cooked ethnic cuisine including Spanish, Italian, Thai, Middle Eastern and Asian.
Becky Miller taught the class. She's a student at Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food, the college's culinary program. Davis said she enjoyed learning from Miller because she was a student.
"It's an honor to have someone who is working in the culinary arts themselves to teach because it gives us a connection," Davis said.
Teaching the class was an additional learning opportunity for Miller. She said she was familiar with most of the recipes, but she sought advice about some from Brightwater instructors.
Miller and the students needed to problem solve when a dish didn't turn out as expected, such as when the cream for the tiramisu curdled and separated.
"It solidifies what I've been learning, and it pushes me to learn further," Miller said. "It's helped me shape my relationship with the instructors."
Stephanie Blevins, Northwest Arkansas outreach coordinator for Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office, toured the Kids College classes Wednesday. She visited the culinary, robotics and painting classes.
Hutchinson has pushed for young people to be exposed to computer coding and for businesses, two-year colleges and technical schools to work together to develop a workforce with technology skills that will attract businesses to the state.
It was exciting to see youth get excited about what they were learning, Blevins said.
"Workforce development is critical," she said. "The earlier you can have a child find a passion and then let them develop that passion, the more prepared they're going to be for the workforce."
Metro on 07/02/2018