College recruiters come to the Valley seeking students

Students, parents and college recruiters were all abuzz Wednesday evening at the Imperial County Office of Education’s Higher Education  Week I Parent Night in El Centro.

During Higher Education Week I college, university and technical school recruiters visit each high school in Imperial County throughout the week said Denise Cabanilla, coordinator of higher education for the ICOE.

The Parent Night event brought more than 25 college and university recruiters to the Imperial Valley Mall food court to answer questions for local high school seniors and their parents about the college application  process and individual school requirements and programs.

“When we’re at the schools (throughout Higher Ed Week) the students receive both the application workshops and the college fair,” Cabanilla said.

“It’s typically not enough time to get all your questions answered so we offer the Parent Night as an opportunity for students to come back to have more one-on-one contact with recruiters as well as the parent (being) there to get their questions answered as well,” she said.

In addition to recruiters from California, college recruiters from Arizona and Mexico also had a presence at the event as parents and students alike took notice.

“There’s a lot of things I didn’t know, like there’s a lot of reciprocity between bordering states,” Brawley parent Debra Gray said as her 17-year-old daughter Tori spoke with a recruiter from the Yuma branch campus of Northern University Arizona.

“She listened to all the presentations (at school) and she came home with a wealth of information.

“The nice thing about coming here is that we hear firsthand from the universities,” Gray said. “(Tori) has already been offered some (athletic) scholarships.”

Other parents looked at different aspects of the process while they and their students learned about the various school offerings.

“What I’m looking for is something that’s economical I guess,” Brawley mother Olga Leon said with her 16-year-old daughter Clarissa in front of the Biola University table.

“I’m giving her the opportunity to select the college of her choice, the career of her choice,” Leon said. “She needs to choose something she’s going to enjoy because once you make that choice it’s for life.

“Even if the price wasn’t right I would find a way to send her there,” she said.

“I’m here to support her,” El Centro parent Raul Valenzuela said in Spanish with his 17-year-old daughter Jasmine.

“I’m thinking about (the cost), we’ll see how it goes. She wants to be a doctor and (higher education) is a really good future for her,” Valenzuela said. “And for me because we’ll have an in-house doctor,” he laughed.