Last week, KidsTek’s Business Computing class from North High School enjoyed a personalized campus tour of CU Boulder, courtesy of a group of students from CU’s Leeds School of Business. This annual field trip is the culminating event of the college readiness curriculum that is taught alongside Google Apps and other soft skills in that class, and is a product of a longstanding partnership between KidsTek and Leeds.
“It’s always great getting to work with each new group from Leeds,” said Program Manager Emily Tow. “Every group brings something new and exciting to the project, and it’s great to see them bond with our students while giving them such important information and insight as they figure out their post-high school paths.”
Each year, a group of Leeds sophomores works with KidsTek’s class at North throughout the school year as part of one of their business courses. The Leeds students visit the classroom multiple times to add a first-person perspective to the college readiness curriculum and get to know the North kiddos, while fundraising and planning a customized campus tour for the class.
In addition to the campus tour, KidsTek students also had the opportunity to have lunch with some illustrious guests: Juan Vargas, a former KidsTek and CU Boulder student, currently working at Splunk; Rich Liner, founder of KidsTek; Henry Wright, Director of Business Architecture, Advanced Platforms, and Technology Solution Strategy at CoreLogic and former KidsTek board member; and Tricia Salata, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator for the Research and Innovation Office at CU Boulder.
“Overall it was a great experience for the students. Not many of them have had the opportunity to tour a college campus before, and CU Boulder was a great school to introduce them to it,” said Instructor Jacob Clauson, who teaches the class at North. “The tour did a good job of showing a snapshot of college life, and I think it really made an impact for a lot of the students.”
Thank you to our friends at CU Boulder, our guests, and everyone who made this experience possible for our students!
