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Taking care of our own

January 22, 2009

Blueprint: College brings college planning to Ohio State employees

by Julia Harris

If Amy Wade had her way, there would be no such thing as college dreams. Instead, there would only be college plans — concrete, clear, realistic plans for getting into college. And paying for it.

She’s doing her part to make college access a reality for central Ohio students and parents, spearheading last year’s Blueprint: College planning program aimed mostly at lower-income families with kids in fourth and fifth grades. And starting Feb. 24, she’ll be offering a version of that program on Ohio State’s campus, tailored for employees of Facilities Operations and Development.

Wade works with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience, where she has partnered with Tally Hart, senior adviser for the university’s Economic Access Initiative, to provide curriculum and training opportunities around college access. The success of the Blueprint: College program, which graduated almost 50 families, led both Wade and Hart to dream their own college dreams.

“We thought it was really important, as we do things within the community, to remember and do things within our own internal community,” Hart said. “We recognize that just because we sit within an educational institution, we can’t assume that everyone who’s here has equal knowledge.”

It was while Wade was out recruiting families for the second, expanded iteration of Blueprint — due to launch this spring with almost 300 participants — that she realized there was a huge interest in college planning information among Ohio State’s own employees.

“Being out in the community and representing this program for Ohio State made me understand that we need to bring this to our own constituencies first,” Wade said.

Finding a campus group for the pilot Blueprint project wasn’t hard; as it turns out, Hart said, there are parties waiting in the wings for their chance to go through the curriculum.

They ultimately decided on FOD because of the unit’s size and diversity. Working with Peggy Barylak, HR consultant with FOD, they began to sort through the needs and unique work constraints of the employees.

“FOD’s been very supportive in helping us structure the program in such a way that would be compatible with employees’ work schedules, finding facilities for us and providing release time so employees can come to the program,” Hart said.

The curriculum is being restructured to fit into three three-hour blocks of time, offered once a week to employees who have children in grades 4-9.

While the repackaging process is a bit of a challenge right now, Wade admits with a grin, she’s also looking forward to being able to use the new version with community groups in places like libraries or rec centers.

“This will be our ‘parents-only’ version, as opposed to the parent version that goes along with the College Camp for kids,” Wade said, referring to the supervised childcare offered to participants in the first Blueprint: College program.

With the version being offered to FOD employees, Wade says, there also will be information about how to get their kids into college and how to take advantage of OSU’s tuition discount benefit.

“We don’t know yet how many people we’re going to have since applications aren’t due until Feb. 13,” Wade said.

Barylak says interest level among FOD employees is high. “We’re a large and diverse organization, and our employees who have not continued their education after high school will find this information invaluable for making decisions about their children’s future.”

For Hart, it’s about more than the children’s future. Another benefit of the Blueprint pilots is the interest she sees kindled in the parents themselves. “Once you start helping parents understand education for their children, one of the natural outgrowths is people start wanting to know more about their own education.”