Gibson Co. kids enjoy learning on college campus

TRENTON, Tenn. — Monday morning, parents dropped their students off for their first day of College for Kids.

“In fact, when we walked in he was actually asking me if this is what college kids do,” mother Anita Martin said. “And I said, ‘yeah, [but] they don’t have the small desk. They have the big desk.'”

At Dyersburg State Community College in Gibson County, kindergarten through 6th grade students are devoting a few hours of their summer break to learning.

“I like to learn about science, and I love math and reading,” student Bennett Black said.

“I like it because it has pretty much everything,” Justin Bruketta said.

Students got to choose three classes they wanted to take, and each day they follow their schedule as if they were attending college.

“He said, ‘Pop, I ‘m going to college today,'” grandfather Michael Abbott said. “I said, ‘man, that’s great.’ Seven years old, going to college.”

This is the second year College for Kids has been offered in Trenton, and leaders say attendance has grown.

“They’re learning, yet they are having fun,” Dyersburg State Community College program specialist Teresa Evans said. “It gets them exposed to a college campus, and that’s starting them out young gearing them toward college, and that’s important.”

Parents said letting their kids experience a week on a college campus is an opportunity they weren’t going to let pass them by.

“Can’t learn enough at this age — they’re so smart anyway right now,” Abbott said. “This is just adding to it and stacking the deck up on their future.”

Registration is open until Friday for the next kids camp that starts next week on the Dyersburg campus. That camp will focus on the STEM topics — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The cost for each camper is $100.