Merced College holds first-ever ‘Preview Days’

Between getting students to do the Cha-Cha Slide and the Nae Nae, Merced College used a new program this week to prepare local high schoolers to attend the community college.

The first-ever Blue Devil Preview Days brought more than 800 area high school students to the college’s Merced and Los Banos campuses, giving many of them their first peek at the schools.

Getting the seniors to the campus is a big step toward getting them enrolled, according to Anne DiCarlo, the college’s director of relations with schools.

“We tend to lose students over the summer,” she said. “We want to give them a chance to see the campus and get excited about going to school here.”

The Merced campus was open for tours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Students toured the Los Banos campus Wednesday.

From kindergarten to high school, students have little choice on what they’ll study and when. But, at the college level, it’s up to them to pick and schedule courses.

Norma Maciel, a counselor at Le Grand High School, said students can sometimes feel intimidated and decide not to go to college during the summer break after high school.

The preview this week was a way to bridge that gap. Students could register, get financial aid and take a tour of campus.

“Kids are ready to walk on (campus) Aug. 15 with no to-do list,” Maciel said.

El Capitan and Golden Valley high schools were also on campus Thursday.

Organizers estimated about 70 percent to 80 percent of visiting high schoolers registered for the summer or fall semesters. According to school officials, Merced College typically receives about 1,600 incoming high school seniors each year.

On the main campus Thursday, Celeste Diaz, 18, of Merced said she had already scheduled classes earlier in the week but used her time on campus to learn the landmarks and line up financial aid.

“I definitely recommend it (Preview Days) for next year and the upcoming seniors,” she said.

Diaz, a Le Grand High senior, said she wants to study criminology, a field she said she became interested in watching the detective work of Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc.

Maciel said Merced College is the most likely destination after high school for most of the graduates at her high school. Some may need time to catch up or otherwise prepare themselves for a four-year school. Others want to save money in their first two years.

Persuading those high school seniors to enroll in college before the summer could help do away with any uncertainty, Maciel said. “They already know they have a plan,” she said. “It’s when you let them loose that they don’t have guidance.”

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Merced College holds first-ever ‘Preview Days’."