This morning I had the pleasure of going back to high school -- not as a student, thank heavens, but as an observer. UGA's Bateman team played "Life" with a bunch of college-bound juniors and seniors at Clarke Central High School to teach them about saving money, applying for scholarships, and choosing what kind of school to attend. Three students (selected based on essays they'd submitted to a competition) played on a construction paper game board complete with stops for prom and getting a car. Based on the amount of money they had saved from babysitting and so forth, and on their SAT scores, each player got to choose a state college to attend. The student who had the most money left at the end won. And I mean won -- a $500 scholarship for college. A couple of UGA cheerleaders cheered them on, and the Army sent recruiters as well.
Afterwards a bunch of students stayed to ask questions, pick up brochures or pencils embossed with the team's Web site URL, and get their pictures taken with the cheerleaders, and the team recorded their comments about what they learned -- that the HOPE scholarship doesn't cover all expenses, for example -- things that I thought everyone knew but obviously they didn't. (The videos and pictures will be posted on YouTube, Facebook, etc.) And the counselors told me the students had been really engaged by the program. So, I count it as a big success. I'm always telling Bateman team members that pride in their results is more important than the judges' scores in the competition, and I think this is a perfect example -- real kids getting real help they weren't getting elsewhere.
My pictures didn't turn out too well because the auditorium was pretty dark, but three team members are pictured above: Erin leads the game; Selena talks to a student after the assembly; and Stephanie chats with a recruiter.
