Baltimore, MD
Baltimore City Public Schools partnered with the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, April 28, 2022 for the school district’s first large-scale college and career fair hosted at Camden Yards. Between 11am-1pm more than 2,000 high school students were transported to the historic ballpark campus to network with almost 100 colleges and community organizations. The purpose was to expose a greater number of students in the 10th and 11th grades to postsecondary pathways and trajectories available locally and around the country.
DTLR sponsored a senior celebration station at the fair to honor and celebrate the college choices and postsecondary decisions of our seniors ahead of national signing day. Scholarship agencies and institutions extended special scholarship opportunities to student participants.
This unprecedented opportunity and partnership is key to the success of Baltimore City and our young people at a time when college and postsecondary enrollment numbers are in steep decline across the country and as the nation grapples with lifting resource-stratified communities that have been disproportionately and systemically impacted by the pandemic. Large-scale and cross-sectoral collaborations as demonstrated by this event introduced a new student-centered model for recruitment from higher education and workforce development programs.
The future of academic and economic excellence will only be made stronger by partnering holistically and creatively in youth development. The cooperation between industries equally invested in the success of future generations provide our students with connections to real-life opportunities and caring adults who, as research has shown, are pivotal to postsecondary success and outcomes. There are so many important and positive moments for the City of Baltimore that never get honored and City Schools is excited to continue to partner with the Orioles and DTLR to cultivate the successes and aspirations of our young people with this historic occasion.