Merrimack College Fights High Dropout Rates in Local School System Merrimack College Fights High Dropout Rates in Local School System Spurred to action by the alarmingly high dropout rate for high school students in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Urban Resource Institute at Merrimack College is working with the local school system and teachers to help area grade school, junior high, and high school students navigate around obstacles in the education system. Four Merrimack programs, all funded in part through the COPC grant program, provide a range of assistance to students, including career counseling, science enrichment, college preparation, and mentoring. These programs try to eliminate barriers that kids face in moving to the next step in the education system. College students can choose to enter into a two-year contract to mentor teens or to help with existing afterschool programs.
Mentors help with homework and plan activities centered on career awareness.
For one such activity, a Merrimack physics professor was recruited to teach lessons on aeronautics by building and testing paper airplanes. About 90 elementary school faculty have been trained in teaching through experiments in an Eisenhower Foundation-supported program. Once trained, teachers may borrow science equipment from the college. Elementary teachers praise the program, noting dramatic changes in the students' outlooks. Student participants now regularly purchase science-oriented books from their school book clubs, says Gage.