The 5th annual MASFAA Carnival of Learning was held on November 6th at the Newton Marriott in conjunction with the annual conference. The Carnival of Learning was developed as a way get middle school students excited about education beyond high school and to motivate them to start preparing academically for college now.

Fifty 8th grade students and several teachers from the Pyne Arts School in Lowell attended. The students were assigned to small groups and given a passport to collect stickers as they visited each booth at the Carnival. Members of the committee accompanied each group to the booths to watch demonstrations provided by volunteers from area colleges. The volunteers showed the students careers they could have by studying certain subjects in college. The demonstrations included: entrepreneurship, sports management, veterinary medicine, art, nursing, chemistry, robotics, dentistry, ophthalmology, and culinary arts. At one booth, the students ‘graduated’ and received a picture of themselves in a cap and gown.

A period was provided for the students to take a break and have a snack. During the break they enjoyed hotdogs, ice cream, pretzels and cookies. To end the day, Key Note speaker, Odalis Polanco, a Northeastern University special scholar, spoke about his journey to college via the Gear-Up program.

The committee has received tremendously positive feedback so far and is awaiting the formal evaluations by the students that attended. This is the first year the committee presented the Carnival of Learning without the assistance of an event planner, so special thanks go to co-chairs Jean Berg and Kim Huse for their coordination efforts and congratulations to the entire committee for the best Carnival yet!