Shouting at Hill-Hope Elementary is typically against the rules. Unless, that is, it happens to be University T-shirt Day and the students are at a school-wide rally, chanting the words “I am college bound!” at the top of their young lungs – all at Principal Cassandra Ashley’s request. University T-shirt day is part of the school’s University Week program, designed to expose students to the little-known (or even imagined) world of higher education.
“I was the first in my family to go to college,” Dr. Ashley recalls. “I want the children to know if they work really hard, the dream of college can be theirs. College can change their life as it changed mine.”