The PEAK Program sponsors early college awareness activities that reach almost 450 second graders in twenty-four different classrooms in all seven Newark City School elementary buildings. Outreach at this grade level focuses on three priorities: introducing the notion of college, promoting the importance of reading to school success and beginning conversations about different types of occupations. The five main activities during the year are:
- I Know I Can Go To College Reading Week. Local college students participate in a lesson plan covering what it is like being in college and why it is so important to have high educational aspirations. During the visit, the children's motivational reader, I Know I Can, is read aloud and the college student volunteers give a copy of the book to each child at the session's end.
- Reading Rocks at the Library. Each building’s second grade classrooms visit the Licking County Library where a community volunteer reads the book, The Little Engine That Could. In addition, the children tour the library and learn the proper way to care for library books. Lastly, in partnership with the Licking County Library, each 2nd grader receives a library card.