Mayor Rybak Helps Third Graders Get Ready for College

I Know I Can College Awareness Day Held in City Elementary Schools

February 11, 2009 (MINNEAPOLIS) -- As part of his mission to get every Minneapolis student ready for college, Mayor R.T. Rybak and hundreds of volunteers visited third grade classrooms across the City today with a simple message: you can and you should go to college.

"We expect all our Minneapolis students to be prepared for college," Mayor Rybak said to a class of third graders at Cityview Elementary School today. "The City, through the efforts of the Minneapolis Promise, is doing everything we can to help kids get ready, but the rest is up to you to stay in school, work hard, and develop a plan for the future."

As part of his Minneapolis Promise initiative, Mayor Rybak was in elementary schools today to launch the I Know I Can College Awareness Day promoting college to third grade students. Mayor Rybak and more than 200 volunteers read I Know I Can, a nationally acclaimed children’s book about going to college, to third graders in dozens of Minneapolis public elementary schools. In addition to reading the book, Rybak and volunteers talked about their own college experiences, why it’s important to go to college, and how to get ready for college – even starting in 3rd grade.

An important goal of the I Know I Can College Awareness Day was to connect youth with adults from the community and to get students thinking about how adults can help them succeed.

"If our schools are to succeed in the future, they will need to rely on the participation of the larger community," Minneapolis Superintendent Dr. Bill Green said of today’s effort. "After all, the health of the city is only as robust as its next generation of citizens. And we are all in this together."

The I Know I Can College Awareness Day is part of the Minneapolis Promise, an innovative cluster of coordinated efforts designed to eliminate barriers to college education for Minneapolis public school students and says to our young people that if they stay in school and focus on where they want to go, Minneapolis will get them there. Becoming a national innovative model, the Minneapolis Promise provides counseling so young people can plan a vision for their future, quality summer jobs, and financial assistance for college.

I Know I Can College Awareness Day is led by the Office of the Mayor and sponsored by RBC Wealth Management, with support from Minneapolis Public Schools, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota College Access Network.

Published Feb. 11, 2009