TUCSON, Ariz. — A center at the University of Arizona College of Education is offering an opportunity for high school students to get involved in college.
Worlds of Words: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures builds bridges across global cultures through children’s and adolescent literature. It's the largest global literacy youth center in the United States.
Worlds of Words offers a Teen Reading Ambassador program for students to get a college experience within UArizona that focuses on books for teens.
Ambassadors learn about young adult literature under the direction of faculty and staff with expertise in children’s literature, education, library science and marketing.
Meetings typically occur from 10 a.m. to noon on one Saturday a month at Worlds of Words, 1430 E. Second St., Rm. 453.
One of the students in the program is Gregory Medina-Kenyon. He's one of the students that helped start it in 2018.
He said he grew up in a household where college didn't feel like an option.
"(people told him) I'm bound to this reality of McDonald's fry cook because I am poor or just because I am mentally ill," Medina-Kenyon said. "It kind of galvanized me to think if I was going to beat the odds, I would."
He has now been accepted into Stanford's class of 2024 and said he owes a part of it to the WOW program.
To become a Teen Reading Ambassador, students must complete the application. Applications will be accepted through the summer each year with start dates in the Fall.
For more information on the Teen Reading Ambassadors or general information about Worlds of Words, email wow@email.arizona.edu.
