Students from more than 15 Indiana high schools came to Ball State Tuesday to become college students.
The students were part of Ball State's annual College Awareness Day, which is sponsored through the Office of Admissions' Early Outreach Program.
The program is designed to give high school students, particularly minorities, a perspective on the college curriculum and what life as a college student is like, as told by Ball State faculty and students.
Ball State junior and College Awareness Day volunteer Sherilyn Brown said it is vital for prospective students to hear testimonies from people who are living the experience.
"They want the aspects from an actual student and those who are going through it," Brown said. "It gives them an insight on college life, instead of just hearing it from administrators."
Graduate assistant Jonika Moore said it is important that minority students understand what to expect as freshmen.
"Minority students need to know every aspect of college life," she said. "It's important that they get acclimated to the academic regions of it."
The College Awareness Day program was created in the early '90s by David Davis, coordinator and director of the Early Outreach Program. Its designed to introduce minority students to higher learning so they have time to alter their curriculums at their high schools.
"They need information as early as possible to think about careers and get introduced to college by experiencing the college campus firsthand," Davis said.
Over 350 students from cities such as South Bend, Anderson and Indianapolis attended Tuesday's program.
They were invited to a question-and-answer panel discussion with college students, 30-minute academic sessions from the 29 participating departments and a tour of the campus.
Early Outreach assistant director David Griffey said he hopes the students will look into applying at Ball State or at least consider college if they had not already.
"I hope that they learned something and that it's not so difficult now that they've experienced it for a day," Griffey said.
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