s the semester ends, graduations commence and the transfer process begins for many Vaqueros.
Many new students, mainly high school students, take place of the departing students, but usually have no idea on how to acquire the resources that the campus has to offer.
“Bound Day,” a program provided and designed by Student Outreach Services (SOS), helps high school students learn what academic and financial resources GCC provides by showing them around campus
.
Although the Bound Day program is only in its second year, many schools seem to have interest in the program.
“We have 14 schools in the Bound Day program so far,” said Carolina Yernazian, an SOS staff member and coordinator for the Bound Day program, “[The high school students] come and we show them what the school has to offer.”
Before the students come to the campus, the program has a workshop for the students to apply.
“The first thing, before anything, is to help the students apply,” said Yernazian,
“[Applying] is a very important step for college,” said John Kim, a college counselor for high school students. “This happens to be the step the most students tend not to do.”
After the students receive help
in the application process, the program sets up the “Bound Day,” where students take a field trip to the campus.
Once students arrive, the assessment test room is only open to the future Vaqueros, as each school has around 25 students arriving and up to 40 students at most.
From 9 a.m. to noon, the students take the English assessment and can optionally take the math assessment.
“It would be ideal to take both of the tests, so they can get them out of the way,” said Martin Hauck, a student worker in the assessment office.
After the students finish, they can ask which class they have qualified for, or find out how to challenge a test result to get into a college level class.
After all students finish their assessments, lunch, provided by SOS, is served to the students, followed by a tour of the campus.
On a recent “Bound Day,” Stella Yghnanian and Asad Imam, current students working in the SOS department, held the tour from 12:40 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
“This is just where the high school students can get to familiarize themselves with their new campus, and also to calm the curious ones,” Yernazian said.
After the 35-minute tour of the campus, the students attended a seminar featuring many of the GCC faculty.
Student government Academic Counselor Teresa Davis, the GAUSS club (which specializes in animatronics), and Yernazian all gave a short speech on what students can do to either get financial aid or gain priority registration.
“AB540, or undocumented students will soon be able to get financial aid,” said Yernazian. “As an AB540 student, I know how hard it is not to have financial aid. Soon AB540s have a better chance to make it in college.”
College orientation class, also known as ST DV 100, was a major topic for counselor Davis.
“This class won’t only teach you how to use programs like MyGCC, but also gives you priority registration,” said Davis. “Not to mention, it’s only a one-day class.”
Thomas Voden, founder of the GAUSS club, brought a student-made robot to show how college students have more power and ability to create, compared to high school students.
Voden said that the GAUSS club is always looking for new members, new or current students.
The SPARK program was also mentioned by Yernazian. SPARK is a program made to help future Vaqueros by peer mentoring and having better connections to resources on campus.
After the seminar ends the students return to their school ready for the new campus that awaits them, even if in the end, they choose a different campus.
If current Vaqueros would like to help with the “Bound Day” program, the Student Outreach Services office is located at SM266.
