College T-shirts broaden horizons
Sacramento Bee 4/26/07
"One of the kids said, 'I didn't know there was more than one college,' and I just could not let it go," Tate said.
As a mother of three children at Bates Elementary School in rural Courtland, Tate began gathering various college T-shirts for all students to wear.
An intensive Internet search was followed by phone calls to all of Tate's friends, family members and business associates.
An e-mail sent to California State University Chancellor Charles Reed resulted in donations of two T-shirts from each state university, Bates said. About 280 T-shirts will be given to students today as a visual lesson about various possibilities in higher education.
"A lot of these kids live on a ranch where their family works and the students are bused to school," Tate said. "I'm always taken aback by the isolation, although we're 25 minutes from downtown Sacramento."
Courtland, a quiet agricultural community in Sacramento County's Delta area, is home to about 700 residents. The town is reminiscent of days past, consisting mostly of fruit farms, a small post office, a couple of markets and schools.
About 75 percent of students at Bates Elementary speak English as a second language and only 5 percent come from families who have a college education, said Bates, treasurer of the school's Parent Teacher Association.
The parents helped organize "Touch of College." The school program will start this morning with each student receiving a college T-shirt and then pinpointing that college on a large map of the United States in the school auditorium.
Students will return to school in the evening for Family Night, which will include a book fair, a tamale dinner and college graduates speaking about their experiences in higher education.
Sixth-grader Noemi Sevilla helped prepare for the event Wednesday afternoon by folding T-shirts. Some shirts represented area campuses, such as the University of California, Davis. Other shirts were from campuses farther away, such as Princeton, Brown and Florida State universities.
"I was surprised that there were so many colleges," Sevilla said, adding that she wants to attend California State University, Sacramento, to become a veterinarian.
Sixth-grader Mayra Estrada said she'd heard of Cosumnes River College, but she also wasn't aware of the other schools.
Tate said she "definitely bit off more than she could chew" when she started the T-shirt project but she wants to do it again next year if reaction is positive.