By: Diana Aceves, Kimberly Herrera, and Alexis Sanchez
Each year, eligible 11th graders go on a 3 day trip to Northern California to tour various competitive colleges.
Students can choose between tour one and tour two. Tour one consists of UC Santa Cruz, CSU Fresno, University of the Pacific, and UC Merced. Tour two includes UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and CSU Monterey Bay. Both of the tours start together, but they go different ways after visiting UC Santa Cruz.
Students who were eligible to attend received an invitation during guidance. Students signed up for the trip on January 19. Some arrived to school as early as 6:00 am to make sure that they would have a spot on the tour of their choice.
Junior, Karina Gonzalez, is one of the students that was invited to take part of the college trip.
“I chose tour #2 because of UC Santa Barbara,” said Karina, “I am looking forward to the tour because I’ve heard many good things about the colleges.”
Once sign ups began, it was obvious that tour 2 was the popular tour. Many students were not able to get a spot on tour 2 because each tour only had 23 spots.
“I wanted tour 2 and I kind of didn’t like the fact that it was first come first serve,” said Daniela Ramos, a junior at APB. “They should’ve done it by grades.”
Students who were able to get a spot on the tour of their choice are excited to be going. They are looking forward to seeing if a certain college is the right fit for them. Many students hope to learn about the GPA requirements and student teacher ratio. Sandy Galindo, a junior, is looking forward to seeing the campuses, majors offered, and class sizes.
Similarly, Tiofilo Cortez, a junior, hopes to find a college that has a good environment, good vibes, and is a good fit for him and his parents.
Mr. Pickering, Tour #1 chaperone, mentions that he is excited to take students to UC Santa Cruz because he is a former student.
“I am also excited to take students to colleges I have not visited yet,” said Pickering. “Hopefully students get to receive information from colleges that they would not get from websites,” said Pickering.
Overall, 46 juniors will be attending the 11th grade field trip from April 3 through April 5. The students will be able to learn about different colleges in Northern California and spend time with their peers. Students will have an enjoyable experience being independent and learning about different colleges.
