Zaya Roberson recalls her visit to UGArden as a seventh grader in the Clarke County School District.

During that Experience UGA excursion, she and her peers sampled spicy peppers and crafted smoothies from the abundant produce while discovering what the University of Georgia has in store. Now, as a sophomore at UGA and an ambassador for Experience UGA, she is aiding in organizing those same trips for Clarke County students.

“It’s right in our neighborhood,” said Roberson, who is studying human development and family science in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “UGA is attainable. Those students could very well be in my shoes one day. That’s why I aimed to be part of the program — to inform students that UGA is within their reach.”

Experience UGA is a collaborative initiative between the university and CCSD, aiming to provide every student in the district with an educational field trip to UGA’s campus annually. This program commenced 13 years ago following discussions for a community grant. One of the proposals was for a campus visit initiative, and while Clarke County did not obtain that specific grant, the concept was embraced.

“It appeared to be such a natural opportunity to forge connections for and with the local community,” remarked Josh Podvin, assistant director for the Office of Service-Learning and supervisor of the Experience UGA program.

The initiative is managed by the Office of Service-Learning, enabling it to cultivate and maintain partnerships throughout the entire campus. It also acts as a central hub, uniting individual campus visits for a shared objective.

“The Experience UGA excursions offer a fantastic chance for students to expand their horizons by visiting UGA’s campus. While students may have attended UGA for an event previously, they might not have gained much insight into academics or college life,” explained Katie Green, an instructional coach at Clarke Central High School, who organizes Experience UGA field trips for all students at the school.

Each visit aims to connect with the standards being taught at the respective grade level. Pre-K students explore the State Botanical Garden, learning all about their senses. Kindergarteners have lessons on measurements at the Mary Frances Early College of Education.

At the middle school level, students familiarize themselves with the surrounding land through the State Botanical Garden and UGArden, while also touring the Special Collections Libraries with the history department.

High school CCSD students begin to ponder their future by participating in a science expo filled with interactive activities and presentations from various departments and research fields, learning about their environment from the College of Environment and Design, and engaging in a Life 101 simulation of post-high school responsibilities, alongside the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, the University Health Center, and the Terry College of Business.

Experience UGA coordinates up to 90 field trips each year with over 40 partners on campus, bringing nearly 8,000 CCSD students to UGA. By taking students out of the classroom for these excursions, CCSD educators can establish real-world connections to the material they are teaching.

“On our most recent ninth-grade excursion, three students were learning about fruit flies from Shaun McCann at the genetics department booth. As soon as McCann started explaining the winged and wingless fruit flies, the students excitedly exclaimed, ‘We just studied this.’ It was incredibly rewarding to witness students making connections to what they had learned in class and being enthusiastic about their newfound knowledge,” Green noted.

Not only are CCSD students benefiting from these excursions. Each year, 950 UGA students participate in Experience UGA, including ambassadors like Roberson and Jordan Wyatt, who also experienced these field trips as CCSD students.

“A primary goal for Experience UGA is to introduce kids to higher education and the university, and I genuinely wanted to be involved,” stated Wyatt, a sophomore majoring in psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

By assisting with field trips, ambassadors develop communication and management abilities. They are also enhancing leadership skills that will be beneficial in their future careers. They undergo weekly training to foster self-identity, focus on professional growth, and engage with the community.

“Our ambassadors are a crucial and integral part of making the field trips succeed,” remarked Aiyana Egins, program coordinator for Experience UGA. “They’re receiving opportunities to evolve as leaders, which we have seen manifest in many beneficial ways.”

Egins and Podvin aim for Experience UGA to expand with more campus partners and enriched experiences for CCSD students. They have introduced extended Experience UGA options like virtual content developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and are investigating ways to bring CCSD students to further areas on campus.

“That’s the aspiration — that it serves as a springboard for numerous other discussions,” Podvin expressed.

“It’s a job well done if a student leaves with something, whether it relates to the material or just an overall enthusiasm from having the chance to visit UGA and then discovering they will be welcomed back to explore entirely new experiences,” Egins shared. “That’s truly gratifying for me.”

The article Experience UGA connects classrooms to campus was first published on UGA Today.