The Migrant Scholars Program completes the first of three two-week sessions on Friday (June 30) at California State University, Fresno with 167 students from Fresno, Clovis, Fowler, West Fresno, Coalinga, Kings Canyon, Sanger and Mendota Unified School Districts.

New this year is a robotics course in which students design and build a sumobot, learning about computer software and how to write programming code. The students use what they’ve learned to program their robot and to develop a Web page. On Thursday morning (June 29), they will demonstrate their finished projects in a robot competition.

The Migrant Scholars Program, designed to offer enrichment activities for migrant youth in grades 4 to 6, culminates with an awards ceremony at the end of each session. On Friday, June 30 the first ceremony will be held at the Satellite Student Union at Fresno State from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Class will showcase its projects and give certificates of participation to students.

Classes are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. The second 2006 session begins Monday, July 3, and runs to July 14. The third session is from July 17 to 29.

Besides robotics, this year’s courses are in agricultural science, guitar/beginning band, chemistry, kinesiology, digital audio, library research and Internet, digital video, physics, folk music and dance, and theatre arts.

The Migrant Scholars Program is a partnership between K-12 Migrant Education in Fresno County school districts and University Migrant Services at Fresno State.

“The purpose of the program is to expose migrant youth to the campus and its environment.” said Raul Z. Moreno, the program coordinator. “Participants get involved in hands-on learning activities and interact with migrant college students.”