Colors will run deep at First Creek

As the final school year at Gault Middle School came to a close, a new tradition of post-high school success continued.

An idea that was started at the East Side middle school during the 2007-08 school year grew into a part of the Gault Gazelles’ way of life, and will carry over into the students’ new building, First Creek Middle School, touching an even wider spectrum of low-income students.

The idea is giving college T-shirts to students as a way to inspire them to pursue post-secondary education.

At Gault, the college T-shirt campaign started in tandem with the state’s College Bound pledge, which will pay college tuition for low-income students who graduate high school with C’s and above and stay out of trouble.

Seventh and eighth-grade students made the College Bound pledge at Gault as more and more donated college T-shirts began popping up around the school.

“At first it was a little bit foreign, then all of a sudden people were talking about college,” said instructional facilitator Rachel Smith-Mosel. “But now it’s there. College is certainly on the tips of their tongues now, it’s a reality.”

While there is no quantitative data for the numbers of students at Gault who will actually go to college based on the last two years of the T-shirt campaign and College Bound pledge, numbers at Edenvale Elementary School in San Jose, Calif. do not lie.

The T-shirt campaign is based on a similar practice at that school, which was started in 1987 by Smith-Mosel’s father Meril Smith. Over the years, there has been a dramatic increase in high school graduates and college students who began their education at Edenvale.

First Creek Middle School, which will open this September on Portland Avenue, will house about 850 middle school students, the combined populations of Gault and McIlvaigh students.

Smith-Mosel currently has about 100 shirts to start the school year with, and aims to cloak every student at First Creek in college colors to perpetuate the idea of after-high school education, especially for the McIlvaigh students and incoming sixth-graders who previously have not been exposed to the campaign.

As the largest middle school in Tacoma, and in one of the more diverse and economically depressed areas, Smith-Mosel hopes that promoting the college mission at First Creek will have an even larger impact in the greater community.

“If we can get 850 kids to see themselves behind their diploma, we can change the perception of an entire community,” she said. “It’s a ripple effect.”

For the past two years at Gault, students have been granted college T-shirts for being caught doing something positive at their school, such as by exhibiting respectful or trustworthy behavior.  

The same will be true for students next year, but the campaign will have a stronger focus on career and technical colleges.

“We want to make sure that kids’ definition of college is not limited to the Ivy League…we’re talking about anything you want to do post-secondary school. That post-secondary education is what will impact your quality of life.”

The First Creek Middle School Associated Student Body (ASB) will be represented equally by both Gault and McIlvaigh students who will take over the previous responsibility of Gault staff by writing letters to colleges across the country telling about their college T-shirt campaign and requesting donations.

Smith-Mosel, First Creek ASB advisor, hopes this will serve a double function, also allowing students to research colleges they may someday want to attend while putting letters in the mail.

Donations of used college T-shirts and sweatshirts are accepted year round from members of the local community. Throughout the summer, donations can continue to be made at Gault Middle School, 1115 E. Division Lane, until the First Creek building opens in August.

“We want to make sure we get all kids into college T-shirts,” Smith-Mosel said. “I want to be able to run out and have more, run out and have more.

“We want that conversation about college to start in September.”

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