Junior high school students striving to be the first members of their families to go to college got a firsthand look at the UA yesterday.

Members of Gamma Alpha Omega sorority showed 32 local junior high school students around campus for Shadow Day, a program in which visiting junior high school students follow college students around the campus, like shadows, to get a feel for university life.

Shadow Day gives kids a look at a daily college schedule, said Veronica Chavez, sociology senior and GAO member.

The visiting students, representing Sierra, Chaparral and Apollo middle schools, came to the University of Arizona as part of the Talent Search program.

The program, in its second semester, includes approximately 450 students in the Sunnyside School District, more than 500 in the Tucson Unified High School District and 150 students from the Pascua-Yaqui Indian Reservation, said Reuben Reyes, site coordinator at Chaparral and Apollo middle schools and Desert View High School.

The program tracks the students from the time they enroll until they graduate from high school, Reyes said.

Talent Search, sponsored by Pima Community College, is a year-round program designed to encourage, motivate and inform students about college, Reyes said.

"A lot of students see a college education as far away from them, or not available. My job is to show them differently," Reyes said.

To be involved in Talent Search, the student must come from a low-income family where no one has graduated from a four-year institution, Reyes said.

"Many of these kids are not as privileged and don't have role models," said Vanessa Bracamonte, GAO member and senior interdisciplinary studies major who escorted some junior high school students around campus. Talent Search "gives them an opportunity to meet role models."

"College is hard, but it pays off in the future after everyone graduates," said 13-year-old Ryan Tovar, an eighth-grader at Sierra Middle School who joined the program four days ago.

Having the students come to campus, Reyes said, "gives them the experience of going to college firsthand and living it for one day."

"It makes me want to go to school," 14-year-old Damion Martinez said.

Gamma Alpha Omega has participated in the Shadow Day program for two semesters, but this was the first time for members of Alpha Chi Omega sorority who led 10 students in the Talent Search program from Cholla High School Tuesday.

"It was great to see the enthusiasm the students had since they're the first in their families to go to college," said Shelley Cuthbertson, ACO member and sophomore in fashion merchandising.

Kathryn At Lee, ACO member and political science junior, said, "It helped them to go to the classes and see what the atmosphere was like."