Students contemplate the next big step at PC Transfer Fair
Porterville College (PC) held a Transfer Fair Monday for community members, college and high school students to learn about a variety of academic institutions and to ask questions about their future endeavors.
This was the second year PC has held the event. More than 30 booths were set up by colleges and other organizations to enlighten the college students and the 500 expected high school juniors from around the Porterville area on the array of possibilities as they continue to pursue their educational goals.
“The purpose is to bring colleges and universities from all over the state and even some out of state to PC. It is for our students to have a chance to connect with those schools,” said Carmen Martin, transfer coordinator and counselor at PC, who emphasized fall semester is when students are applying to transfer to other campuses. “We want to give them the opportunity to expand their horizons and maybe consider other schools that they are not familiar with.” Marlyn Smith is a PC student who is ready to transfer to a university, and she said she decided to attend the fair the first day she heard about it.
“I stopped by the Grand Canyon University booth, and I didn’t know they carry the social work program online, also the fact their tuition comes with books included,” said Smith, who has a family and a full-time job, which is why she decided to attend PC first then transfer to a bigger school. “I went to every table to ask specific questions about what I want to do,
and what would be the best fit for me.”
Smith said she has a special interest in the event because she was going to get to ask questions to universities in person rather than having to call, make an appointment and possibly having to visit the campus. She said the transfer fair has made it much easier to learn about possible colleges she might attend.
Many high school students walked around the booths with questions regarding admissions, housing, cost and financial aid, academics, campus community and resources.
“There are a lot of booths, and I've been getting lots of information from the universities,” said Nicole Nuñez of Porterville High School, who said the information was very helpful even though she is still figuring out what she wants to study. “If I don't go straight to a university, now I know there are many options regardless if I decide to stay at PC for two years.”
Martin said they specifically invited high school juniors to get them thinking about the process early.
“This is for them to think about being in PC for a couple of years and then transferring,” said Martin.
California State Universities, UCS and private universities both in and out of state were represented at the fair. Martin said they expected about 500 students to attend, about 21 representatives from institutions, and 10 PC booths.
Public universities included California State University of Sacramento, Fresno State, Bakersfield State, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz.
Private universities included University of La Verne, Fresno Pacific University, University of Phoenix, Brandman University, Pacific Oaks College, Holy Names University, Chamberlain University, National University, Simpson University and University of the Pacific.
“Last year was much better than we expected for being the first one,” said Martin. “We will continue to do this event because it is important. We are in a geographic area where we are disconnected from big universities, so we wanted to bring them here for our students.”