This past Saturday, May 11, DU Service and Change (DUSC), the Diversity Summit, the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL) and the Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME) brought 300 Munroe Elementary school students, parents and faculty to the DU campus. The “Day of Action” was a collaborative effort to promote the achievable goal of college for these families.

According to Alicia Carter, a third-year DU student from California studying International Studies and co-President of DUSC, the idea of the day was to show these students that college is an opportunity in their futures. This was achieved through various departmental presentations including poetry writing, a trip around the world, and exploring the brain a campus tour and information sessions on financial aid.

“For the past few months Munroe Elementary School has practiced a call and response cheer in order to stir excitement about college,” said Carter. “Munroe teachers, principals, and other staff would ask the students ‘College?’ and they would yell back, ‘for certain.’”

The day was organized by numerous student and campus organizations that spent “countless” hours marketing and recruiting volunteers. Current DU students, faculty and staff and alumni volunteered their time.

According to Maria Ory, a senior majoring in International Studies and also a co-President of DUSC, it was the volunteers that really brought the day together.

The volunteers were organized into groups of 15-20 Munroe students and parents, with whom they participated in tours, discussions and presentations about college.

“The 100 plus volunteers were amazing and engaged the kids and their parents, taught them about college and helped these children visualize their bright futures in education,” said Ory.

“For so many of these students college was a very far away unattainable idea, but after Day of Action, I believe we … succeeded in making it not only a possible part of their future, but motivated them to do what it takes to get there,” said Carter.

Both Carter and Ory said that once they heard the “College? For Certain.” call and response cheer echo through Davis auditorium, they had “goose-bumps” and their “hearts were completely full.”

“Many of these children may look back on May 11, 2013 as a point in their lives where everything changed,” said Carter. “I knew we were changing people’s lives, and I have the assurance that these kids would someday attend college.”

Ory said that Day of Action was a “huge success” and “could not have gone better.”

This sense of achievement was reinforced during the volunteer reflection session at the end of the day. For example, Caitlin Mendenhall, a group guide for Day of Action, mentioned that one of her second grade student’s whispered in her ear “I think I want to be in college.”

Carter said that many other remarks such as “I never want this day to end” and “when can I come back?” were heard throughout the day.

Both DU and Munroe are hoping to make Day of Action a tradition. Some DUSC members have even been discussing bringing other schools in the Denver area to DU.

“To be a part of all this is more than I could have ever asked for in my experience at DU this year,” said Carter.