Topping the list of things that Julie King feels that Metro Early College High School has prepared her for, are the abilities to function as a student at The Ohio State University, excel in her classes, be a leader and work hard.

Then, perhaps most importantly: “I’m prepared to see how little I know, how much knowledge I still have to gain,” she says to a group that includes Metro staff, outside community members, family and fellow students at her senior gateway. “I’m prepared to give, display and live up to the name Metro Early College.”

Unlike the Gateway ceremony that students generally undergo at the end of their second year to determine their readiness to take college courses, senior gateways give students an opportunity to look back and teach their teachers about what worked for them.

“In the senior gateway, the student can show us the 35,000-foot view of their time at Metro,” teacher Neal Bluel tells the gathered group. “The can help us understand what is going to help them be successful when they move beyond Metro’s walls.”

Through an iMovie featuring images of friends and educational experiences from her past four years, a PowerPoint presentation assessing her growth at Metro and a testimony from a fellow student advocate, King depicts herself as a strong communicator and a person more interested in ethical contributions to the world than personal economic gain.

Throughout the Metro experience, students examine their growth through the filter of the six “Metro habits of heart and mind.” Each self-assessment asks them to evaluate their abilities as an effective communicator, inquiring learner, active and responsible decision maker, effective collaborator, critical thinker and engaged learner.

To King, it’s her growth as both an effective collaborator and communicator that she feels will push her forward, having completed assignments like a collaborative writing project with her mother about a near-death car accident. She also represented Metro in a promotional video for Ohio State that was shown to contributors.
Three years earlier, she also raised her own funds with another student to visit Cambodia and interview Kmher people.

“I saw the reality of people there,” she said. “What girls had to do to bring home money… people who get blonde highlights in their hair because of malnutrition… the extremely high HIV-positive population.”

And in spite of those things, what she found when she interviewed people was that there was still a lot of hope, she told the room, getting slightly choked up.

Once King’s presentation is complete, the group poses questions to her, like “what was the most difficult thing that didn’t go the way you planned, from which you thought you learned the most?”

Because of the mastery system, King, who scored an 85 in Spanish, discussed having to retake the course, which, she said, was hard, but may have made her more fluent in the language.

King and all other students are dismissed from the room to discuss whether or not her presentation suggests that she is truly college-ready. Everyone agrees that she is as they discuss the things that impressed them, or that they felt might be helpful to her going forward. She is called back into the room, and Bluel gives her feedback.

“We thought it was extremely compassionate, you showed it and didn’t list it as an attibute,” he tells her, scanning notes he made. “In your demeanor, you seem to be very flexible, and that flexibility is going to take you a long, long way. The emotional reaction you were having seemed to catch you off guard, but after that, your presentation was more natural.”

“We all agree that you have passed your senior gateway.”