Korea Daily’s Successful Hectic College Fair

he 12th annual college fair was a success with over 4000 people participating.
[Source: http://www.collegefair.koreadaily.com]

On September 30th, 2017, Korea Daily hosted the 12th annual college fair at the Birmingham Community Charter High School. Every year, the fair includes plenty of educational information, keynote speakers, and college booths. But this year, they added in a STEM lunch table discussion event which a number of students were able to sit with a mentor from their interested STEM field and have a friendly conversation with them.

Around 4,000 people attended the college fair and have been very satisfied with what the fair had to offer. Minsuh Park, a sophomore at West Ranch High School shared, “Before this fair, I was not clear on what and how to write on college application essays. However, after attending seminars, it became very apparent on how to prepare for colleges.” The seminars helped a lot of students on writing skills that would help them prepare for later steps in their student careers such as learning how to write college applications, and tips for test-taking skills on SAT or ACT. There were around 20 seminars informing students about their desired career.

The college booths were filled with people at all times.
[Source: Author, Minju Cho]

Among the other seminars, one seminar with JSR alumni included a special Q&A session and the alumni experience in high school and college. A lot of students found this event very helpful because they were able to listen to someone who had been through the process that the students are going through right now. Jasmin Yoon, a junior at West Ranch High School stated, “Hearing from elders who are in college actually really spoke to me about what I need to work on.” The real experience from the alumni helped students to refer to their preparation for colleges.

This year’s new program, the STEM lunch table discussion was divided into healthcare, Computer Science, Pure Science, and Engineering. There were about 20 mentors including current employees at Google and NASA JPL, as well as graduate students and alumni from UC Berkeley, UCLA, CalTech, USC, UCSD, and UCI. Park commented, “The lunch with the mentor from the STEM field that I am interested in gave me a big impact because my mentor explained what the career will be like and how I can plan my future.”

Overall, the majority of students were greatly satisfied with this year’s college fair, and the event was filled with teaching students important factors when applying to college.

Minju Cho

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