More than 30,000 visitors tour the Columbia campus every
year - most of them high school students from around the
world. This spring a new group has become a force among the
ranks of campus visitors -young children being groomed for
impressive futures.
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The Visitor's Center, according to Manager Jennifer Russo,
has been called on with increasing frequency to provide
tours for school groups of youngsters, some as young as 9 or
10, from New York City and the nearby suburbs. As a former
fifth-grade teacher, Russo understands the importance of
early motivation in the lives of children. She said teachers
use the campus tour as a way to introduce to their students
the idea that they should work hard and aim for college,
even if they haven't mastered long division yet.
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Through the spring months, the Visitors Center has hosted
tours for 500 students, including groups of middle school
students who participate in a program run by the Children's
Aid Society called Project Live, a dropout prevention and
literacy program. Project Live, through a mentoring program
with corporate sponsors, tries to prevent students from
joining the 48.5 percent of New York City high school
students who drop out each year.
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Other school groups have come from suburban New Jersey,
Harlem and elsewhere in the city.
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Jane Doherty, Columbia College Class of 95 who teaches
at P.S. 4 in Washington Heights, recently guided her class
of eager 5th graders as they listened politely to a Columbia
tour guide describing the significance of the Alma Mater
statue in front of Low Library.
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"I want them to know there's a really great school just a
few subway stops away where they can go if they work for
it," said Doherty, asked what she hopes a campus tour might
accomplish. "This is the way to set an example for
college."
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Her class made a VIP stop that isn't on everyone's tour -
President George Rupp's office for a brief pre-arranged
visit. Rupp fielded questions from the group, including one
he has definitely not been asked before.
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"Are you the owner here?" the boy asked. "No," said Rupp,
"I'm really more like the caretaker."
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