Blue Devil Notebook: Recruiter touts benefits of Merced College education

Anne DiCarlo has been traveling a bit lately.

Merced College’s new director of the Office of Relations With Schools figures she’s seen almost 1,000 area high school students since January.

“I’m enjoying myself, and I really like visiting our high schools,” she said.

With visits to about 16 high schools already behind her, DiCarlo is recruiting new Merced College students from the pool of local graduating seniors. It’s something that the college has needed to do for some time.

“My position was vacant for about a year,” she said, “so there weren’t a lot of outreach activities being conducted. I knew that I needed to go out and meet these students and tell them about opportunities they’ll have at their local community college.”

Taking with her the college’s president and vice presidents, as well as its elected members of the board of trustees, DiCarlo meets not only with students, but school administrators and counselors. The visits become a fact-finding mission of sorts in which area high school leaders have a chance to talk about the higher education needs of their students.

“They’ve been telling us how much they missed our presence,” she said. “There was a void there that we were not filling.

“What we’re hearing is that there is a big demand for career technical education, such as our welding and mechanized agriculture programs. However, many of these students are enrolling in expensive trade schools and coming out of these programs with huge debt. That’s just not a good investment for them.

“Private schools have huge budgets with seasoned recruiters and large advertising campaigns. We can’t match that, but we can guarantee a quality education at an affordable price. Merced College is a great bargain for our local students,” she said.

DiCarlo, a 1993 Merced High School graduate, is especially well-suited for community college outreach. A former recruiter for Intel Corp., she traveled throughout the nation to recruit newly graduated college students.

“I was always traveling somewhere, going from airport to airport,” she said.

Now she finds herself in a college van driving from Merced to Dos Palos, Chowchilla, Mariposa, Livingston, Los Banos and many other communities served by Merced College.

“The best part of my job is seeing students I’ve met come to the college,” she said. “A couple have already come up to me and said, ‘Remember me?’

“Getting them here is what I love the most.”

Congressman Costa visits

During a recent congressional recess, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, paid a visit to student leaders in an informal setting.

Costa, representing the state’s 16th Congressional District, addressed several issues of concern to the college students, including financial aid and student debt; the importance of science, math and engineering education; and the immigrant family experience.

According to Associated Students of Merced College President Cody Camacho, the invitation to the congressman was an opportunity for students to address issues of concern with their representative in Congress.

“ASMC sees the importance of exposing our fellow students to these types of meetings in order to help them develop their diplomatic and leadership skills as well as to help them learn how to conduct themselves in such high-profile meetings,” Camacho said.

“I felt the meeting went very well and was extremely productive. Due to the drought we are currently facing in California, water production and conservation were the two main topics we discussed.”

Costa encouraged the students to continue developing their leadership skills.

“The decisions you make today will determine your lifestyle and the future you’ll have,” Costa said. “I support you. A lot is resting on the next generation, and you’re that generation.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Blue Devil Notebook: Recruiter touts benefits of Merced College education."