On October 12th, 2023, 9th graders were given the opportunity to take a field trip over to Cal Poly Pomona.
Freshmen who toured the campus were allowed to see the Japanese garden, student-run hotel, engineering building, stables, and more. The most popular location was the game room, filled wall to wall with billiard tables and mounted screens.
“I felt like it was a really amazing school,” 9th grader, Patricia Galvan expresses, “The walking tour was really amazing in my opinion. Very lovely and very nice.”
During the tour, students were also given a crash course on the campus’s historical significance.
“The guide that we had, [provided] a lot of information, and then a lot of history.” 9th grader, Mark Dinsmore reflects, “Like that one area with all the people that invested in Cal Poly, how [Kellogg] brought all the horses, and how him and Walt [Disney] were close. I didn’t know that.”
Mark hopes to study psychology but lacks confidence in Cal Poly’s ability to provide what he’ll need.
“Maybe I wanna go there one day. I’d have to consider what major I’m going to really do because psychology is my guess.” Mark concludes, “If I don’t do psychology, that’s probably where I’m going.”
The consensus from students about the trip seemed to be that the school was very nice, however, they seemed uncertain as to whether or not they’d be attending the college for their future endeavors.
“. . . if I have nothing else to go to, I would go attend,” Freshman DaShaughn Bynum admits.
Despite this uncertainty, the chaperone of the field trip, Ms. Guevara, believes that, “It’s important to visit college campuses because it helps students gain a perspective of different learning environments,” and that in her opinion, “When students are able to visit campuses in freshman year, they are able to see what they like, what works for them, and in senior year they are able to make an informed choice when enrolling in colleges.”
Although the significance of this trip may be contested, it’s hard to refute that it was a positive experience for many students.
