College planning begins early at Gateway Public Schools and today the class of 2019 visited the UC Berkeley campus. Every year Gateway hosts its annual freshman orientation at a local college campus as a way of instilling college bound expectations among students right from the start of school.
The trip offers students with a glimpse of college life, but more importantly creates a mind-set among students that college is a real possibility regardless of where they come from academically or socially. The trip conveys to students that school matters and that hard work pays off.
Gateway students come from diverse economic and personal backgrounds. Forty percent of Gateway students are the first in their families to attend college and 25 % of students have diagnosed learning differences.
Gateway's core mission remains at setting high expectations for all students and preparing them well for college. Gateway's track record of success with sending virtually 100% of its graduates to college each year continues to be double the statewide average for public school students.