Monroe County Students Visit FIU, Explore College Pathways

Students from Monroe County participated in a campus visit to Florida International University on November 7, 2025 as part of the Take Stock in Children program. The group, identified as the Class of 2028, toured academic and student life spaces at FIU and spent time with Golden Scholars and university alumni who described their college and career experiences and outlined the resources available on campus.

The visit was documented on the Monroe County Schools news feed and fits within the district program of college access activities intended to expose students to higher education environments. Take Stock in Children supports college readiness by pairing scholarships with mentoring and alumni engagement, and district officials characterized the FIU trip as a hands on introduction to the practical logistics of college life as well as an opportunity to motivate students to pursue postsecondary options.

For local families and community stakeholders the trip offers tangible benefits. Students gain first hand understanding of campus services, academic pathways and student support structures that are often difficult to comprehend from a classroom setting alone. For a rural and geographically dispersed county such as Monroe, these direct experiences can help demystify higher education and reduce barriers related to unfamiliarity or uncertainty about college processes.

Institutionally the visit highlights the role of partnerships between the school district and higher education institutions in expanding opportunity. Campus tours and alumni panels are common strategies in college access work, but their effectiveness depends on follow up, mentoring continuity and alignment with financial aid and application support back in the home district. The Take Stock program’s combination of scholarships and mentoring aims to address that continuity, though sustained results require ongoing tracking of student outcomes and continued investment.

Policy implications for local leaders include the need to ensure stable funding for college access programming, to measure academic and enrollment outcomes over time, and to scale partnerships that broaden students’ postsecondary options. Alumni engagement provides a valuable bridge between aspiration and attainment, but it must be supported by structured mentoring and resources for navigation of applications, financial aid and campus transition.

Looking forward, the FIU visit represents a single step in the Class of 2028’s longer path toward postsecondary success. For Monroe County residents, the immediate value is in the exposure and information students received, while the broader test will be whether the district can sustain mentoring, track progress and translate campus visits into higher enrollment and completion rates for local students.