The University of Iowa should implement more youth classes, from an array of departments, to get young people excited about enrolling at the UI.

One youth program already at the university is the Iowa Youth Writing Program, or also known as IYWP. The IYWP is an arts outreach program that holds classes and programs on many levels.

IYWP has programs for elementary students to learn writing at a young age, with the help of volunteers from high schools in the Iowa City Community School District.

Summer classes are available from the IYWP, with some in person before COVID-19 and some online during the pandemic. These summer classes allow young writers to learn and work together to better their writing.

While the IYWP only has English and creative writing classes, it still serves as a great way for K-12 kids to both take quality classes and to want to learn more from the UI.

In summer of 2020, I took an online creative writing class from the IYWP. The class was six weeks long, with each week covering a different concept. It was a good combination of writing and reading from other young writers.

Any chance to work with other writers helps improve young students and inspire them to keep working on their craft.

The class I took was creative writing, but the UI does have other youth programs and classes, like science, music, and entrepreneurship.

The UI should have other departments create classes for the youth community, not only in Iowa.

IYWP for the most part is focused on Iowa, but when it held classes online it took in some students from outside of the state.

While a program that focuses on Iowans is nice, it leaves out one of the most important parts to classes such as those in creative writing — diversity. Students from around the country can help writers and readers get multiple perspectives and get a variety of stories.

Other departments at the UI could use online classes for the youth community to bring in a more diverse crowd that could want to take more classes at the university in the future.

This would also allow students to test out different majors and departments to find ones they like. With opportunities like that, high schoolers and younger students would be able to work with the UI to enroll at the college level later on.

Some departments at the UI are not as well-known as other departments, and some students have never taken classes like them before.

For example, fewer people know what Anthropology is, or what classes are like, so having high schoolers take classes before college would give them an idea as to whether they would enjoy the subject.

The UI needs to create youth classes for all departments, so that students can better grasp what the majors are before starting college, and have a chance to experience the UI before enrolling.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.