High school students swarmed campus on Nov. 4 as The Kern High School District partnered with Bakersfield College to host the Early College Pathways Program. A few faculty and staff put the event together including Stephanie Baltazar, the lead Program Director of Career Education, and Ashley Wagner, the Director of Outreach.

“We’re providing long- and short-term certificates for full time graduates and those looking to transfer,” Baltazar said.

With over 1000 high school students in attendance, 95% of them being seniors, many BC Staff members came to campus and set up booths and helped educate some of the future Renegades in the fields of study they teach.

SGA officials led tours throughout the campus, highlighting key features of our institution, and some staff even held interactive labs for students to engage with. The tech lab provided some of their robots that had been engineered by previous BC graduates to talk and put on a show.

The campus Starbucks provided free coffee to the students and teachers while the Folkloric club played festive music and staged cultural dances that some high school students decided to participate in. Free lunches were also provided with complimentary BC backpacks and other Renegade merchandise.

When students were interviewed about their thoughts about BC, most came to the conclusion that they would be planning to enroll.

Uzziel Roque, a MiraMonte student, stated that he wanted to go to BC and major in Astronomy, “I’ve always wanted to work with telescopes,” Roque said.” But I’m going to transfer to UC San Diego to finish my major.”

Most of the other students shared the same sentiment in wanting to finish their education at a UC or CSU.