College application season is here and the students of Oakland Unified School District are ready.
The CSU College Day held at Fremont High School on October 4th was a collaboration of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), Oakland Promise, and the Oakland Children’s Initiative to prepare Oakland student for their postsecondary future.
Bryanna Alfaro, our Bay Area PeerForward Coach, gave more insight on the event, “this is the second time the CSU College Fair has been held in Northern California. The first time they did it was last year here at Fremont. OUSD students from all over were invited to attend.”
Jaliza Collins, our PeerForward Advisor from Fremont High School, shared more about the college fair. “First and foremost, the Peer Leaders are amazing! Yesterday, the Fremont Peer Leaders took over a local radio station, which allowed them to promote the event to the entire student body.”
“It isn’t just my Peer Leaders here today, the Peer Leaders from all of our Oakland schools showed up to the CSU College Fair. From setting up the event to walking around asking folks if they need help and just being a resource, they’ve done a lot.”
Jaliza described the event as an opportunity for all students of Oakland, “students are able to meet with admissions officers who can answer any questions they might have. We have students getting support on their CSU applications, FAFSA, and California Dream Apps right now. We have internship tables, scholarship tables, a financial aid overview, a college admissions overview, and a CCGI Workshop happening!”
The atmosphere at the event was electric; as a college fair, it offered fun and exciting moments to celebrate embarking on a postsecondary pathway. “College mascots came out, we have have a DJ, local food, and overall really great vibes! There are even face painting and graduation cap decorating stations for younger students in attendance and a photo booth for our high school students to be able to take pictures in a cap and gown to help them visualize their future. We truly have something for everyone here,” Jaliza beamed.
Senior Peer Leaders Mikayla Vasquez and America Camargo explained how they
contributed to the college fair and what it was like to attend: “We arrived at 7am to help set up,” said Mikayla. “Honestly we’re used to volunteering, we volunteer a lot, especially with PeerForward. The fair has been so fun! The music, the people, the support, everything.
“We’ve met a lot of reps saying we can get into college, it’s like a dream comes true considering we just started our senior year!”
She continued, “they gave us more information about the extracurriculars and clubs they have, the campus, what the student body is like, the surrounding area, and just more information about the school in general. They even taught us more about the majors they offer! I didn’t realize some of these schools had majors I’m interested in.” America then chimed in to add her thoughts. “It’s been fun! We had the chance to talk to people from our dream schools. Mine is San Jose State and Mikayla’s is San Francisco State.”
Dominic Antoine Jr., one of our senior Peer Leaders, shared his own involvement in the event: “As a Peer Leader, my role at the college fair is to just encourage not only myself, but my peers to come out here and learn about the colleges. We helped set up and guide students through certain processes like deciding what colleges they’re interested in and submitting their applications. I wanted to make sure my peers are taking advantage of the resources we have by coming through and participating in the CSU College Fair.”
Finally, our marketing rep had the chance t0 meet with Joshua Alcocer, the Director of K-12 at Oakland Promise. He discussed our partnership with their organization, how the event came to be, and what role our Peer Leaders played. “One of the things that Oakland Promise does is grant an award to one of our partners in the K-12 space and PeerForward is one of those recipients. We help to fund the PeerForward program at 7 of our Oakland High Schools.”
“It’s great because our Peer Leaders are able to not only share information about our scholarship, but about financial aid and college applications as well. We’re really able to make sure that all students are able to receive that information.”
He added, “this college fair is a collaboration between the CSU system, Oakland Promise, and the Oakland Children’s Initiative. Our PeerForward leaders were essential in helping us set up the event, being ushers and stewards, and really making sure that this event ran smoothly. They’ve also been great ambassadors when it comes to recruiting students to actually attend and really learn about these opportunities not only in senior year, but even earlier.”
In the end, the CSU College Day acted as an important tool for the students of OUSD. We are so grateful for our friends at Oakland Promise for making this event happen, and for our Peer Leaders’ efforts in contributing to its success!
Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
