Hundreds of fifth and sixth graders came to BYU as part of Y-Serve’s Project Youth Day.
Project Youth’s Day of Service is an annual event from BYU’s Y-Serve Program.
Project Youth brings the students from Title 1 schools to BYU to see what campus life is like and to “instill a desire for higher education.”
“We really want to help them see they have a place here at college and can pursue higher education,” Project Youth Executive Director Hannah Dixon said.
Many of the children come from low income, dual language, or immigrant families.
“One of my favorite parts of the event is watching how excited the kids get to see people who come from similar backgrounds as they do and presenting to them or leading them around on campus,” Dixon said.
College students gave them tours in small groups before they split up into breakout rooms. The children went to special collections in the library, met with the First Generation Student Organization and attended the Y Chem show.
To finish the day they held a power rally with speakers and performances, including the hip-hop club, BYU basketball player Trey Stewart, softball player Huntyr Ava, sociology professor Ben Gibbs and Michael Goedel from Living Legends.
Goedel said to the audience, “Be true to who you are, believe in yourself, even if you hit roadblocks here and there, it’s okay just keep going.”
Project Youth is working to show kids that college is exciting and attainable.
