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Leaders at Wesleyan often speak about the need to train students for a global economy. The effort is growing younger.
The Generation Hope laptop program launched last month to prepare sixth grade students to compete in the global economy. The 16-week program is the vision of Roy Brooks, member of Weslyan’s board of trustees and Tarrant County commissioner.
“Generation Hope is a symbol of the great things that can happen when the community works together,” Brooks said.
Generation Hope supports core classroom curriculum, but its main focus is math and science. The classes offered to the sixth graders are digital video production and editing, Web design, robotics and video game design.
Dr. Bobby Deaton, Wesleyan professor of physics, helped develop the curriculum for Generation Hope.
“The program is intense,” Deaton said. “My main concern is that these are sixth grade students. This program would be difficult even for Wesleyan students.”
Participants of Generation Hope will attend classes twice a week on their own campuses. They will also meet at Texas Wesleyan one Saturday a month for instruction. Graduate students from Texas Wesleyan and Texas Christian University will teach the program along with coordinators from the Crowley, Everman and Fort Worth school districts.
The sixth grade students will earn ownership of an M&A Companion Touch PC through a point system for completing community service and extracurricular school activities.
Generation Hope will also have a cultural impact. Each student will be partnered with a pen pal from a different country in order to improve their communication skills and give them a cross-cultural understanding.
The Marion J. and Marie N. Brooks Fund created Generation Hope to help develop the whole child. Several corporations, foundations and institutions also support the program. Michael Board, executive of AT&T Texas, will help lead the project.
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