Education program expanding their efforts to Wor-Wic Community College

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md.- Closing a gap, Horizons Delmarva is doing just that and more.

And with a new partnership with Wor-Wic Community College students are getting to see what they are really capable of.

“We are getting the opportunity to expose these young individuals to a college environment at an early age and we are looking forward to them becoming our dual enrollment students,” Deirdra Johnson, Senior Director of Student Development at Wor-Wic, said.

Horizons Delmarva provides academic resources to at risk students in an attempt to close the income driven academic achievement gap.

They help do this with summer programs in Wicomico and Worcester counties, where kids do hands on STEM learning, swimming lessons, and field trips.

“Students from these low income backgrounds don’t always get those opportunities, so studies have shown that these students lose anywhere from 2 to 3 months of academic progress just in these summer months,” Joe Laque, Executive Director of Horizons Delmarva, said.

By expanding their site to Wor-Wic this year, we’re told it shows these students entering 6th through 9th grad that they have potential.

“These students many of them, looking to be first generation college students, haven’t ever been on a college campus before, many of them thinking the college idea or dream is way out of grasp,” Laque said.

One of the students who’s attended Horizons Delmarva for years says she enjoys the camp it allows her to learn new things and make friends.

“I think it gives me a chance to get out of the house during the summer because usually before I started I was just in the house entertaining myself and I didn’t really have anything to do,” Gabrielle Artis, a student, said.

And while the program just started Monday, Wor-Wic and Horizons Delmarva are excited to see what the future holds and how this partnership expands.

“We have submitted a grant application to the Maryland department of education to expand our partnership so we are hoping that we are awarded the grant that way this partnership will continue for the next few years,” Johnson said.