Grand Canyon University - Tucson International Academy

TIA College Visit Tour

How do students make informed decisions about where to apply for college? Most students need more information than what is shown on a website. No guidebook, testimonial or website will give them a better feel for a school than they will get by seeing it for themselves. Many students change their minds after a college visit. This is obviously preferable to changing their minds after they enroll. When it comes to research on which college to attend, there is no substitute for a visit to a campus to help figure out if that college is the right fit. TIA staff and parents take a group of interested students every year on college visit tours. The students envision life beyond high school and can imagine themselves on campus. They meet with current college students, faculty and admissions staff, and explore the local surroundings. They also get the chance to see or do something fun along the way too.

2018 Trip

This year the TIA college visit tour group visited the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, AZ, on the first day. The second day they visited the beautiful campus of Northern Arizona University. The last day they toured Grand Canyon University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

What did the students have to say about this trip?

“This trip definitely made me reconsider where I was going to go to college, as of now I'm thinking about Embry-Riddle for space physics or GCU for business management.” ~ Janelle Moreno “There's something different about visiting a college campus instead of just hearing things about it.” ~ Alonzo Rodriguez “It made me think a lot about going somewhere different than I originally planned. Experiencing the campus life really changes the way you look at college.” ~ Taylor Pineda

What were some of the student's favorite experiences?

Feeding animals at the Out of Africa Wildlife Park, swimming in an indoor pool when it was freezing cold outside, hanging out with the other students who have all become like a family to each other, and a visit to the planetarium on one of the college campuses to see the planets the way they’ve never been viewed before. 100% of all graduating students at TIA get accepted to colleges. This tour is one more tool that helps accomplish that.

Enroll Your Student today at TIA!

TIA Senior Stories – Rubina and Monique

This is a series of TIA Senior Stories about graduates of the school. Rubina and Monique are good friends and graduates of TIA who are attending Grand Canyon University now. Both girls started businesses while in TIA’s high school business program and they would both like to be teachers after they graduate college.

About Rubina

Rubina Herrera was enrolled at TIA from kindergarten through 12th grade. TIA was like a family to her as she’s been with many of the same classmates for years. She loved the small classrooms and how the teachers cared about the students. She felt that the teachers really wanted everyone to succeed and pushed them to make sure it happened. Rubina has also been interested in modeling since she was little. She attended, and graduated from, John Casablancas modeling school in Scottsdale, Arizona. For her project in the high school business program, she created a business called Today's Model, an agency for those people that don’t meet the actual modeling height but would love to express themselves in modeling anyway. Rubina is currently a sophomore at Grand Canyon University. After she graduates, she would like to teach at TIA. She will also continue running her modeling agency.

About Monique

Monique Canez started attending TIA in the third grade. She met and became good friends with Rubina her first year at TIA. Now she also attends Grand Canyon University, majoring in Early Childhood Development. Even though the girls have different majors they find time to hang out with each other every day, whether it’s to study, go to the bowling alley, see a basketball game, or get something to eat. When she graduates she wants to work at a preschool or daycare. She is hoping that TIA will have a preschool by then as she would like to work there if a job is available. While Monique was studying psychology in high school, she learned about a hormone called oxytocin that is released in your body when you touch someone (or a pet) that you love. Oxytocin makes you feel happy. Her pets have helped her relieve stress over the years because the pets aren’t judgmental and are always happy to see her. So Monique created a business called Pet Touch Release for her project in the high school business program. She decided to help others by bringing pets to them so they could have the same happy feeling of unconditional love from an animal. The pet therapy helps others forget about what is stressing them in their daily lives. Rubina and Monique both feel that becoming teachers in the future and educating other students would be an honor. TIA has two more senior success stories! https://youtu.be/iXM3RRojBIQ

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Junior Senior Day

Junior Senior Day was created a few years ago at TIA to inform high school students and their parents about the upcoming big changes that are ahead for them regarding the preparations and transitions from high school to college. This day was designed to help students and parents in many areas:

To make sure they know about college assessment test dates and costs
To know which college assessment tests they need for the state or university they wish to attend
How to write a resume
How to write a proper letter to the college describing themselves, and to adjust it for each college they apply to
How to apply for scholarships, and the need to apply for different ones; guidelines where to apply, dates they need to apply by, etc.
How to be careful of scholarship scams
High school transcripts and what to do with them
How they can get dual credits from local colleges while in high school
Tutoring help
Title 1 help
Attending “Saturday” school to make sure they graduate on time with the proper credits to go on to a college
Help arrange for fieldtrips to local or out of state colleges
Help with other events such as Close Up field trips
Inform them of the dates and costs of upcoming events such as the Cotillion and Graduation

Dual Credits

Previously TIA worked with Pima College so that students could get dual credits while still in high school. Now they are working in tandem with GCU - Grand Canyon University as it is easier to transfer university credits to other universities.

College Tours

TIA asks for input about where each student would like to go to college and tries to organize a tour of that college for the student. Then they will help the student navigate the process to apply and get accepted. One student this year is interested in attending Stanford University. TIA is making the arrangements to visit that college with that student.

Close Up

This program is designed to give students an inside look at democracy at work in action. In addition to their one-of-a-kind Washington High School Program, they customize trips for groups from around the country. These are tailor-made to meet the specific needs of each group. Last year’s Close Up event was in Washington to learn how other nations work together with the U.S. This year the event is in Hawaii.

Enroll today at TIA!

TIA 2014 Career and College Fair

This year’s Career and College Fair was a huge success, with over 250 students in attendance. The keynote speech was given by Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and the first woman to fly a combat mission (she is now running for the US Congress). Then the students had the opportunity to choose among the booths of 27 different local businesses and organizations, and listen to their 20 minute demonstrations on what such a career would be like. After lunch, the final part of the day was to visit the college booths; close to a dozen colleges participated. Their representatives talked to the students about their college options in light of the students’ interests and future career plans.

History of TIA Career Days

Mr. Montemayor and Mr. Von Croft started the TIA Career Days six years ago with 20 students in Mr. Montemayor’s class. Each student who was interested would be paired up with a local business person to shadow on the job for 2-3 hours. The next year Mr. Montmayer offered the shadowing option to two of his classes. It was so successful that they decided to offer the program district-wide. The overwhelming number of students interested in the program made it impossible to provide shadowing opportunities for them all, so four years ago the Career & College Fair was born. Now local businesses, organizations, and colleges come to the students in one place.

Local Businesses That Participated

Some of the local businesses and organizations that participated this year were; Costco, Target, Tucson Airport Authority, F.B.I., Sandoval Creative, R.O.T.C., Tucson Sheriff & Police Departments, and Arizona Public Media.

Schools That Participated

Among the schools that participated this year were University of Arizona, Tucson College of Beauty, ITT Technical Institute, Grand Canyon University, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, Tucson College, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, The Drawing Studio, Inc., and The Art Institute. For more pictures, click here to go TIA’s Facebook page. Enroll Your Child Now Article written by Kim Murphey~TheJ3Effect

Martha McSally & Dr J Career & College Days