Gordon College students instruct fourth-grade pupils from Lynn’s Harrington School about higher learning

LYNN – Although they aren’t even 10 years old yet, fourth-graders from the Harrington Elementary School are getting about a decade’s head start on college this month thanks to a group of volunteers from Gordon College.As part of a partnership between the college and the city of Lynn, the school’s entire fourth grade, along with teachers and parents, spent the day last Friday at the school’s Hamilton campus.The Harrington students attended classes and seminars, conducted science experiments, toured the school’s facilities and met with college students last week, and the Gordon volunteers returned the favor, visiting the Harrington students in their own school Tuesday afternoon.Just over a dozen Gordon College students met with fourth-graders in the school’s gymnasium Tuesday to recap their day at the college and answer any questions the students may have. After showing a brief slideshow about college life and what students have to do to get there, the elementary school kids split into small groups and had pizza with Gordon students.Organizers call the program En Camino, and it is something Harrington Principal Michael Molnar says is a great way to expose younger students to college for the first time.”It gives kids the experience at a college and gives them a sense of what the possibilities are at an early age so that they can begin to prepare now,” said Molnar. “It is intended as a way to boost up their access to college. It really was a good experience for both kids and parents.”Harrington students experienced a variety of college classes, from drama and music to the science courses offered in the school’s new science lab, and say the trip has inspired them to do well in school so that they can attend college.”It was awesome. I thought that maybe now I would like to go to that college,” said fourth- grader Courtney Potter. “In the science lab we learned about a lot of different birds and beaks and how they ate different things.”While Potter says she wants to be a teacher or a librarian, classmate Angela Benavides is leaning toward medical school so that she can become a surgeon.”I thought that all of their classes would be during the day like here, but I was surprised that they have classes at night, too,” she said. “I really liked when we made silly putty with a scientist and we learned how to make toothpaste.”Gordon College has worked with Harrington several times in the past, including a concert performance at the school earlier this year where the college’s wind ensemble entertained the students and taught them about the different instruments.