By JONATHAN DALE, Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Printed courtesy of Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, CA

BRAWLEY — Emily Smith thinks she will be well on her way to fulfilling one of her college plans upon graduation, less than a month into the school year.

The 16-year-old Brawley Union High School senior was on hand with her classmates Wednesday morning to see 14 college representatives present their schools as part of the Imperial County Office of Education’s Higher Education Week.

Emily’s first step was to decide what to do immediately after graduating from BUHS in June.

“I’m thinking about going to Mesa Junior College first in San Diego, because I want to be an X-ray technician,” she said. “But if not there, I’ll start at (Imperial Valley College).”

Emily then waded through the crowd of students and recruiters to choose three universities she said she thinks would be best for her.

As she did so, Emily pointed out her top-three factors in choosing a school to go to for completing her bachelor’s degree.

“First, I look at financial reasons,” she said. “Then I look at what’s offered; what kind of majors the school has. Finally, I look at the location of the school and how far from home it is.”

First on the list was Point Loma Nazarene University, a private school in San Diego County.

“My grandparents live in Point Loma, and my future brother-in-law’s brother went there, and he said he really liked it,” Emily said. “Also, it’s a religious-based institution and I’m Christian.

“It has closer interaction with the professors, and I’m a smaller-group-of-people type of person,” she said.

If Point Loma does not pan out for her, Emily said she’ll be looking at one of two California State Universities — either Chico State or San Diego State.

“It’s a good system to go through, and they offer a lot of different financial opportunities,” Emily said. “I don’t really have the grades to go to a (University of California), so this is a better alternative.”

BUHS lead counselor Bette Hardy said having Higher Ed Week so early in the year is perfect for high school seniors, precisely so they can do what Emily did and look through the system.

“It’s imperative that we do it at the beginning of the year to give the students the information they need to prepare and to plan,” Hardy said.

“The students are given such a variety of options,” she said. “They can narrow their choices and really feel that they’re being able to focus their plans and know what’s expected for them to proceed with a post-secondary education.”

Looking at her options for what will be the better part of the next five years of her life had Emily ready and raring to go, she said.

“The doing this at the beginning of school, it’s going to motivate me to take the SATs at this time rather than wait until the end of the year,” Emily said. “It’s going to push me to get better grades.”

>> Staff Writer Jonathan Dale can be reached at 337-3440 or at jdale@ivpressonline.com