South Fulton Fifth Graders Tour Alabama Universities 

This fall, 80 fifth graders from Randolph Elementary School in south Fulton traveled to Alabama for an all-day field trip. The students and their teachers took two college campus visits to Auburn University and Tuskegee University.  

Thanks to funding from Randolph’s School Governance Council (SGC), the field trip came at no cost to the fifth graders and their families, and didn’t require a school fundraiser. 

The idea came from Randolph Principal Marissa Wilson. 

“I wanted to start the year off with the end in mind,” she explained. “[Students] don’t necessarily get exposed to what a college campus is like before high school.”

Two of Wilson’s children had taken college tours while students at Westlake High School, so she reached out to the company that had organized that trip. 

For just under $11,000, SGC funded the full day, including charter buses, breakfast from Chick-Fil-A, lunch at Buc-ee’s and tours at the two campuses.  

“We were able to quickly finalize everything and make it happen,” explained Dr. Sonya McCoy-Wilson, Randolph’s SGC chair. 

The school relied on its network of connections to Auburn and Tuskegee universities through previous Randolph students now enrolled at the universities or connections to faculty members on the two campuses. 

One of their tour guides at Tuskegee University was a Westlake High School graduate (Randolph Elementary is a feeder school to Westlake High School). 

At Tuskegee University, said Wilson, “They were able to go into many of the buildings and learn the history, African American history and how the foundation for Tuskegee was laid.” 

At Auburn University, students posed for pictures with mascot Aubie, toured the library, and learned about research happening around campus, all while observing campus life in action. 

The trip fit perfectly into the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) designation. 

“The whole aim of IB is lifelong learning and international approach to education, exposing students to cultures of the world and all kinds of ways to be educated,” said McCoy-Wilson. 

Randolph plans to make college tours for the fifth-grade class an annual tradition and hopes to be a model for other SGCs and fifth grades across the district.  

“I won’t be surprised if a number of them choose one of those schools,” said Wilson. “There’s a bigger picture once they leave [Randolph Elementary].”