Wartburg College will host 40 minority students from five Chicago schools during a unique Men’s Visit Day, Friday, Feb. 1.

The students in grades 8-12 will take campus tours, be involved in team-building activities, talk with a professor and hear from a diverse all-male panel about educational opportunities. They will stay overnight with a chaperone in a residence hall after arriving Thursday, Jan. 31.

“This day is strictly for minority males within the Chicago area due to the lack of educational awareness and opportunities in Chicago,” said admissions counselor Russell Harris, a 2010 Wartburg graduate from LaGrange, Ill., a Chicago suburb.

Harris said only 40 percent of Chicago’s minority males graduate from high school, and only 3 percent will go to college. The students visiting Wartburg are all from underperforming Chicago schools and low-income households. Ninety percent have never been outside of the Chicago area.  

Men’s Visit Day, Harris said, will put “college on their radar and help them learn about the tools needed to achieve their goals.”

“We need to start the recruitment process efforts early when targeting these diversity students,” he said, “because in many cases we’re dealing with students who may be accustomed to a lack of educational resources and opportunities. We are able to offer counseling and an opportunity for the matriculation of first-generation college students to our campus.”