College Week is happening this week with a College Fair on Friday, September 15.  The school and counselors hope to promote the importance of going to college one day. Whether students plan on going to a junior college or a university, they will see many options to choose from as they stroll through the college booths. Since this week is about college, there are two stories from the staff on their college experience and how they got there.

Ms. Cortez, counselor attended Dos Palos High School and was overall a good student who maintained good grades.  She was involved in CSF, ASB, a class officer, and AP classes.  In between all that, she worked at a part time job.

Although school was not all easy, it was hard to imagine herself going to college outside the area since she was the first in her family to attend a university. She was the middle child who had to take care of her younger sibling on top of work and school. She had to study well to get scholarships because her parents came from Mexico without a high school education.                                                                                                                                           A trouble Ms.Cortez had was saying no to any distraction. She was easily influenced by her friends to get in trouble and she had to learn to say no to what she is about to do because she knew it was wrong.

While attending Stanislaus, she changed her major from Communication studies when she shadowed her high school counselor. “It was then that I realized that was also something I wanted to do,” Ms. Cortez said. With this new discovery, she got her masters degree in Education and School Counseling.

Now she hopes to share her background and success to those whom she shares a similar background with. She commented on how she wants “…to build that confidence for them to let them know they are capable and they shouldn’t be intimidated. There is tons of resources for them and that they can do whatever they want.”

Another teacher who shared her college experience was Ms. Austin.  She attended high school at LBHS where she played volleyball, softball, and joined the Girls Athletic Association.  She also worked at McDonalds. She maintained good grades but now looking back, she thinks she could have done more for her grades.

Her ROP classes taught her office skills she used to get jobs. Although she did not graduate from a college, she did take some classes from Merced College. Ms. Austin does have a vocational credential for business and marketing which required at least five years of work experience.

Ms. Austin’s goals now is to make her class interesting and to have DECA be successful.

When asked how she sees high school students now she said, “I don’t see them really different…one thing is that we had a lot more school spirit when I was in school.”

One regret Ms. Austin has is not having a four year degree to be a counselor, but she does enjoy being a teacher, even though she never imagined herself as one at 36.

Students can find different colleges that suit their interest at the college fair this Friday. They will have the opportunity to sign up to get information on the college and speak to representatives.