It’s the time of year again where Bakersfield College becomes flooded with hundreds of new faces. From the fresh-faced high school graduates to the mid-twenty and thirty-somethings who feel that now is the right time to start college. And you can’t forget the older students who just want to learn more even in retirement.

Mayson Jones, 21, West High School grad of 2012, has just stepped foot on to the BC campus for the first time this semester. Before attending BC, she was working odd jobs here and there, and helping her family out.

“Yeah, I was working at Torrid at Tejon, but I really just wanted to go to school to try and get my degree,” she said. “Working was fun and all, but I knew that this life wasn’t what I wanted for myself, so now I’m here.”

She came to BC with hopes of getting her AA-T in English to one day be able to transfer to Emerson College in Boston. There, she would like to major in publishing where she would be able to have a career in writing of some sort.

“Emerson College just has a nice feel to it that I personally really like and relate to,” she said. “I like the fact that they actually have a publishing major, especially because that’s what I’m interested in. Most of the colleges I’ve looked into do not offer a degree in it, or anything like it.”

Jones also stated that she would like to also attend Florida Memorial University, and major in ethnic studies. At BC, she enjoys the diversity and maturity of the students compared to high school.

“There’s a wide range of students here, and the maturity level of most of them makes it easy to learn for me,” she said.

Not all students agree with this though, Shanice Watson, 20, Stockdale High School grad of 2014 and first generation American, feels as if Bakersfield College could be a little more ethnically diverse. “I wish BC promoted ethnic clubs more, so that we would actually know that they’re here,” Watson said when informed of ethnic clubs on campus.

“I feel like it would help our education even more if we had a place where we could relate to people who come from similar backgrounds, because we wouldn’t feel alone.”

Watson is a political science major who intends on graduating from BC this fall semester. For her first three semesters, she attended Pierce College in Woodland Hills, but she started to miss her family and friends, so she opted to come back home for her last semester. She has hope of transferring to San Francisco State next fall to finish her bachelor’s degree, which is something her parents always wanted her to pursue.

“Even though my parents are immigrants, they want the same for their kids like any other parent,” she said. “They just always told my sister and I to take advantage of the opportunities we are given.

To also gain as many degrees as we can because those are things no one will be able to take from you.”

Football player Lino Medrano, 19, is a South High School grad of 2015 and the starting center on the BC football team. Before attending BC, he went to Mid-America Nazarene University in Kansas.

“Coming from Mid-America, I didn’t expect BC to be this big,” he said. “There are people everywhere. Back in Kansas, you mainly only saw people in class, never really outside hanging out like you do here.”

Medrano’s favorite part of BC are football and the teachers. He played football throughout high school except his junior year when he broke his collarbone.

Medrano has high hopes for the upcoming season this year. “I think we’re going to be good this year,” he said.

“I can definitely see us being in a bowl game and making playoffs.”

Like Medrano, other students at Bakersfield enjoy their teachers as well, such as freshman Cristian Monciviaz, 18, a recent Stockdale High School graduate.

“So far, I really like BC. All my teachers are really chill. I like them better than my high school teachers.”

Monciviaz continued, “I was kind of nervous coming to BC. Man, like I honestly didn’t even know what to expect, but it hasn’t been that bad so far. I actually like coming to school so far.”

Monciviaz has hopes of becoming a filmmaker and transferring from Bakersfield College with his AA-T in theater to attend USC in the film program.