They sound like heady topics for any college freshmen or sophomore, much less a Northfield High School student, but senior Mauricio Lozada dove right into them on Wednesday night.
A soon-to-be first generation college student whose parents did not graduate from high school, Lozada is one of five Northfield High School students participating in an college-level Introduction to Anthropology course taught by Riverland Community College instructor Katie Nelson.
The result of a partnership between Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes (TORCH) and Riverland Community College, the program is giving seniors Lozada, Pablo Anthony Orozco, Breanna Lees, Giovanni Casillas and Mayra Gutierrez a sneak peak at the academic rigors of college. Like Lozada, several of the students enrolled will be the first members of their family to pursue post-secondary education.
Offered as an online course, the program is the brainchild of Nelson, her sister and former AmeriCorps volunteer Gjeni Stark and TORCH High School Coordinator Beth Berry. Each of the five students do their assigned readings, complete their course work and tackle tough anthropological topics on a weekly basis, and then meet each Wednesday with Nelson at the Hideaway in downtown Northfield to go over the assignments and pose questions to Nelson and AmeriCorps volunteer and teaching assistant Jason Hallen.
“I think these students wouldn’t have the opportunity to have a model for how college works,” Nelson said. “It hasn’t been easy for them, but I can tell by their scores and by our conversations and what they’ve shared with me that they’ve learned a lot.”
And the lessons the students learned have to do with much more than just anthropology.
The class is also challenging personally for Lozada, Orozco and the rest, who must master good time-management skills and be self-motivated in order to complete their online work independently.
Lozada, who’s interested in pursuing cultural or linguistic anthropology in college, said the course has helped him pick up a number of study skills and experiences that will help him as he makes the transition into college.
“It’s kind of given me the idea of self-management and putting time into writing papers and taking quizzes,” Lozada said. “To some level it’s given me an idea of what college is going to be about.”
Lozada has already been accepted into the schools, including Finlandia University, the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the University of Dubuque, in Iowa.
Orozco, who is looking at applying to Normandale Community College and Riverland Community College, said that while some of the topics they cover in the class can be hard to grasp, he is able to get all the help he needs from Nelson and his fellow students.
“This class has helped me a lot to understand what I’m going to be doing during college,” Orozco said. “When you read the book you learn something you never knew before.”
The course wraps up on Dec. 10, and thus far all of the students are passing with flying colors, said Nelson.
“This whole class just shows you how far students can go with the support of others and as a collaborative effort,” said Stark. “These aren’t normal college kids, they’re kids that aren’t expected to go to college, but here they are, taking this course.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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