High school students prepare to present their research at UC Santa Barbara’s 2013 SKILLS Day.
On Tuesday, May 21, 60 students from Carpinteria and Santa Barbara High School came to UC Santa Barbara to take part in SKILLS Day, the capstone event of the SKILLS academic outreach project – School Kids Investigating Language in Life and Society. SKILLS, a collaboration between UCSB Linguistics and Education faculty and Santa Barbara County high schools, promotes academic success by teaching students how to conduct research on language use in their own families, peer groups, and communities.
SKILLS Day brought 15 students from Carpinteria High School to the UCSB campus to present their research to the campus community as well as to an audience of teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and the media. In addition, the students received awards and recognition for their achievements within the program. Following the morning presentations, UCSB undergraduate hosts gave the high school students a taste of college life and took them to lunch in the Dining Commons, gave them a campus mini-tour, and had them sit in on an undergraduate class.
SKILLS Director Mary Bucholtz is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at UCSB and an affiliated faculty member with the Gevirtz School. SKILLS Associate Director Jin Sook Lee, is an associate professor at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education.