BELTON, Texas — Temple College has started a new Adopt-A-School program where they have chosen five elementary schools in the area to work closely with and encourage their students to start thinking about college.
The five they are working with are Miller Heights Elementary, Kennedy-Powell Elementary, Naomi Pasemann Elementary, Nadine Johnson Elementary and Rockdale Intermediate School.
They kicked off their partnership with Miller Heights in Belton on Monday with a ribbon cutting with 12 of their students.
"I hope I go there, it sounds pretty cool," said fifth grade student, Ryder Leija.
"There's going to be a tiger!"
Leija, along with many other students present, were mostly excited about leopard mascot that was present. However, he also told 25 News he had some big plans for his future.
"I want to be an astronaut. I want to 3D-make stuff," Leija said.
"I want to do a lot, there's so much stuff."
Temple College Interim-President Dr. Susan Guzman-Trevino says she hopes the students see them there along the way to show them a path to making all of their dreams possible.
"We've come to understand by the time the students get to high school, it's already too late for some of them," she said.
"They haven't even thought about college, so we know we need to engage with the parents, the families and the students at a young age to let them know college is an option for them and that temple college is right here."
Their staff, students, and even athletes will start making appearances at different events such as field days and help with day-to-day tasks like morning announcements.
"In addition to the Adopt-A-School program, we've been doing a lot of summer camp programs that keep these kids engaged with hands on activities over the summer to keep Temple College and college period on their minds, on their families minds," Dr. Guzman-Trevino said.
Fifth grader Abigail Ramirez said also didn't think much about college before this event, but she's now looking forward to it.
"I think college is going to be fun, because you get to do new things and you get to have fun things when you go to college, and if you don't it's okay, but you'll still have more opportunities when you go to college," Ramirez said.
