On May 16, the third annual Day of Action brought around 200 elementary school students and their families to the DU campus to learn about the college experience and tour the DU campus. The event was attended by the students of Stein Elementary and Smith Elementary schools.

Day of Action was organized by a 12-member planning board with members from DU Service and Change (DUSC), Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL), the Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME) and DU Programing Board (DUPB).

“We’re basically teaching them [the elementary school students] about the holistic process of it [going to college] and everything about it,” said Renee Facchini, a first year international studies and geography major from Highland Park, Illinois who volunteered at the event for DUSC. “It’s not just about going to classes; it’s living on campus, it’s being a part of sports, it’s being a part of Greek life and being a part of interesting organizations like DUSC.”

According to Ryan Hanschen, a staff member at Day of Action, many of the students from both of the attending elementary schools speak Spanish. To accommodate the bilingual nature of the two schools, the event’s organizers made most signs in both English and Spanish and also made sure there was a Spanish translator available at every speech and demonstration.
The event started at 9 a.m. when students and their families gathered in Davis Auditorium for the welcome speech. After the speech, students broke out into groups to be led to different demonstrations held in various Sturm Hall classrooms. Demonstration topics included college basketball, clinical mental health counseling, DU Club Gymnastics, DU Tango Club, DU Programming Board and improvisational comedy.

After attending two demonstrations, the guest students and their parents met on the lawn north of University Hall for lunch and games. At 11:15 a.m. lunch was provided by Pink Tank food truck, which serves breakfast and brunch foods.

Games on the lawn included sand bag tossing, hula hooping, Frisbee and taking pictures in costumes.
After lunch, the guest students separated into groups again to take tours of the campus lead by different DU student volunteers. At 2 p.m. after touring the campus, the elementary students and their parents reconvened in Davis Auditorium for a final speech.

Caitlin Mendenhall, a senior international relations major from Louisville, Colorado, helped organize the event as one of three co-presidents on the event’s planning board. Mendenhall was thrilled with the event’s turnout and proud of the event’s goal.

“You remember the field trips you did when you were in elementary school and they’re going to remember this [Day of Action] their whole life and look back on it,” said Mendenhall. “Maybe someday they’ll be in college and know that’s where it started.”

Facchini appreciated the way Day of Action helped introduce young students to the idea of college, especially those who might not have been considering college otherwise.

“I hope that people understand the importance of Day of Action because a lot of students here [at DU], especially because most of us are white, have all been raised with college on our minds: our parents taught us about it, our aunts and uncles taught us about it and they told us about their college experiences,” said Facchini. “And it is just so important that these kids grow up with an understanding of what college is.”

Facchini mentioned that she also hopes people find Day of Action interesting and important because it is a yearly event and students will have the opportunity to volunteer and participate in next year’s event.