Keep up with the latest from Baylor Line. Subscribe today.

Baylor Line is supported by our sponsors! Become one today.

Life Lessons at an Early Age

Dr. Mia Moody and student

By Racquel Joseph

University for Young People (UYP), an initiative of the Baylor School of Education’s Center for Community Learning and Enrichment, is a series of over thirty different summer classes offered for Waco-area gifted and talented students in first through twelfth grade.

Dr. Mary Witte is the current director of UYP and Project Promise, a similar program for low-income, “at-risk” students. UYP has been active for the past twenty-seven years. Courses currently offered in UYP run the gamut from “Bridge to China” with instruction in elementary Chinese and Tai Chi to “Aqua Explorers,” a course in the properties of water that includes a Kayak trip.

In “Digital Workshop,” a class taught by Baylor professor Dr. Mia Moody, students create a Facebook account, learn about online safety, and are given a crash course in producing a Flash website.  The website features a YouTube video, a biography, a photo essay, and a sample of the students’ work, whether they be poets or athletes. When class begins, Moody asks them to open up their PowerPoint presentations. Like real college students, some of them head straight to Facebook. One seventh-grader opens the local news website and scrolls through the top stories.

Some of the kids in UYP are aware of how smart they are. While eating lunch in the hallway of Castellaw Communications Center and waiting for class to begin, one kid asks another, “How am I not supposed to brag about getting a one hundred on a seventh grade math test?” He is eleven.

They propose almost-plausible scientific theories as jokes: the Earth is oval. And then they pick the theory apart, looking for shortcomings.

Rasun and Zachary, students in “Digital Workshop,” have both been in UYP for two years.
“We get to make our own stuff. It’s like ‘real life’ school,” Rasun said.
Zachary, who especially liked the a class on robotics last summer, said, “This is a school I would willingly go to every year. It’s really independent walking around campus,” he said.
“Yeah,” Rasun agreed, “people look at you like you’re the smartest kid in the world.”

UYP kids in computer labWitte is justly proud of the direction of the program as well as its counterpart, Project Promise. She says classes like “The Real Game of Life,” where students simulate earning a salary and raising a family, give students “a little more appreciation for what their parents go through,” while introducing higher education. She says that the program, which currently has about 220 students enrolled, is experiencing more applicants who need financial aid. Currently, students that attend on scholarship are beneficiaries of a City of Waco grant, but Project Promise has a very high retention rate and there are only five or six openings a year.

Catelia Romero is what Witte calls a Project Promise alumna. Romero is now a sophomore at Baylor majoring in accounting and is working as Witte’s “office manager” this summer. Romero attended University for Young People for nine years, and it helped her to identify her strengths and interests, just as it is intended to do. In the “Real Game of Life” course, she discovered how much she enjoyed drawing up budgets.

“I still have my products at home,” she said.

The courses at UYP change each summer to accommodate what available teachers want to teach and what the leadership thinks students and parents will respond to. As it continues to grow, Witte hopes they can find the necessary financial support to sustain the program. After all, some of these students would like to stay until they graduate–from college.

Latest from Baylor Line

12 Things to Do in Waco at Night

As the sun sets over the heart of Texas, Waco lights up with new adventures. Just as captivating and family-friendly

The Many Murals of Waco

For years, Waco has been growing its reputation as a hub of arts and culture, and nowhere is this more

The 11 Best Bars in Waco

Welcome to Waco’s lively night scene! From historic family-owned bars to modern nightlife spots, it’s time to indulge in the

Recommended

Moving Energy Home

What’s the Future of Power in Texas? Two Baylor Professors Discuss Options for campus and Waco, Texas.

If You Grill It, They Will Come

Hungry Wacoans and Baylor students continue to build Jake Patterson’s Yaki dreams. Teriyaki as it is known today first originated

Baylor Line MAgazine

With over 75 years of storytelling under its belt, the award-winning Baylor Line Magazine is now available digitally. Support this vital, independent voice of Baylor alumni by becoming a member today!