Discovery Day XIX
Written by Authur Gonzalez-Martin, edited by Viri Ruiz
On October 27th, Sonoma State University hosted Discovery Day — a fun day when high school students could check out SSU and start dreaming about college. This year, the senior class from Roseland Collegiate Prep (RCP), participated in both their college-prep program and the CCE's Service-Learning program. As many schools in the county are shutting down this year, they're among the last graduating classes from RCP.
It was interesting to see high school students wandering the campus at the same age I was when I started college, exploring different subjects until I figured out what I wanted to do. As most students have some idea of what they want to study, such as business or economics, but that's usually the first answer. I pursued a career in medicine before taking some journalism and film history courses.
The big highlights of Discovery Day are taking growth to the library's maker space. Anyone who is a student of a university can go into the space and build anything with multimedia studios, including sewing machines, and the signature of the place—: 3D printers. The students looked amazed at the machines while they were taught to make bracelets. Rita Premo explained the need for a maker space, as multimedia has become a much larger part of my education. The bulk of my education involves creating video essays, drawing on my experience studying film over the past few years and on experimenting with costume-making for fandom conventions. I wish I had access to similar spaces at the JC when I was younger.
The students were treated to a pizza lunch before finishing off the day with a few lectures from students in the English department. Edward Duran, a student at SSU studying to be an English major, was the first up. He spoke about their future. "Please take the time to reach out to your teachers when you're older," Ed encouraged the students in the audience, noting that the teachers would appreciate being contacted. As someone who got one of their first major internships through my old journalism and film teachers, I say they are willing to help you out after school as well.
I wish the students the best in their future after Roseland Collegiate Prep closes. I hope that some of the students I talked to that day think about Discovery Day and decide to look into other majors besides Business Administration or Economics. As someone who was in their shoes when I was in high school, there is still time to explore and see what studies interest them, rather than what can make them the most money out of the gate. As one professor told me, "It's better to work in a field you love than work in a field you hate, as passion will overtake you every single time."
