The day started off
by visiting the Lodi Unified School
District Building located in the
industrial area of Lodi off Beckman
Road. The superintendent of Schools, a
Mr. Odie Douglas, spoke articulately
about the district’s population,
diversity, construction, new schools for
the future, and other important
statistical data. We also participated
in our own project with the mobile
technology RV, revealing how technology
works well for today’s students as it
relates to learning and retention.
From there, the
group rode Lodi’s infamous “Grape Line”
to the Robert McNair new public high
school located on West Lane. The school
was vast and full of freshman and
sophomore students, with the juniors
joining the following year, and the
seniors thereafter. The school boasts a
huge swimming pool, a community theatre,
an outdoor amphitheatre, dance room, two
huge gyms, and a creatively constructed
classroom area for the students allowing
sufficient time to have students move
from classroom to classroom. Many of
the students wondered what we were all
about as we traveled from one side of
the campus to the other. Although the
campus is mainly used for students and
faculty, it also can be used for
community events during the evening and
was specifically designed with that in
mind.
At 11:30 a.m. we
arrived, courtesy of the Grape Line, at
Delta College for a wonderful luncheon
with Dr. Rodriguez, Dr. Cox, Dr. Hill,
and other Delta College faculty members
to discuss the new program rolled out
recently named “Passport to College”.
This new program will ensure free
tuition for each 2006-07 fifth grader
for two years to Delta College. This
also includes field trips to the Delta
College campus reiterating the
importance of college. The goal is to
increase the region’s college-going rate
by making college education possible for
all high school graduates. The group
also visited the Microscopy Technology
Center and attained quite a bit of
information on electron microscopy
sciences. Microscopy analysis includes
viewing integrated circuits, particles
and fibers, insects, organisms, etc.
Afterward the group heard a brief
presentation on “Americorp Program”,
involved in helping others, i.e.,
children in classrooms that may fall
behind in their coursework, or need
extra help. Finally, the group took a
tour of the Delta College Nursing
Program, learning what education is
required to become a nurse, the
discussion of the current nursing
shortage, viewing medical “dummies”, and
anatomy models, etc.
Another day well
spent!
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