When the Capstone Men and Women guide a group of students on a tour around The University of Alabama Thursday, the hopeful faces of potential students will be slightly younger than the typical high school senior.

The students will be touring with the Kickstart Program, which is hosting the 8th graders of Tuscaloosa’s Westlawn Middle School from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The opportunity allows the students to check out the campus and opportunities that the University has to offer.

“We called it Kickstart because we want to kickstart kids into prosperous futures,” said Undres Phillips, a junior majoring in secondary education and founder of the program.

The Carl A. Elliot Society partners with the Kickstart program to offer at-risk students the information and inspiration necessary to propel them into college in the future.

On the tour, the Capstone Men and Women will guide the middle schoolers through a day of individualized and group learning about UA organizations as well as the nuances of college life. During a Lakeside lunch, students will have the chance to mingle with UA students. The students will also receive information packets and free prizes.

Kickstart will offer detailed information on how to get scholarships, and at the end of the day, a mock graduation ceremony will be held where all participating students receive a graduation diploma.

Phillips developed the Kickstart Program as a civic engagement project while participating in the First Year Experience program. Sarah Saint, Jackson Willis and McKinley Carder also helped initiate the Kickstart program.

“I personally want to give back to the community to help kids with a low socioeconomic status,” Phillips said.

Although Westlawn Middle is located only a few miles from campus, most of the students there have never been to the University before.

More than 40 organizations have been invited to meet the Westlawn students and share insights into college life. Alexis Long-Daniels, a junior majoring in journalism and psychology and PR chair for the Carl A. Elliott Society, said the experience is intended to be a well-rounded look at University life.

“The focus is definitely to show different organizations, but it’s also to show them college as a whole,” Long-Daniels said.