The day began with questions.

“Where are you going to be 10 years from now?”

“How much does it cost to live?”

“What does success mean to you?”

These were just a few of the questions asked of 300 students who attended Bakersfield College’s recent High School Day.

Students from 17 high schools in Bakersfield and the surrounding area attended the event sponsored by BC Supportive Services.

The day began at 9 a.m. with a presentation in the Indoor Theater.

Several speakers, including Larry Fanucchi, division chair of the department of Applied Sciences and Technology, and Cornelio Rodriguez, who is director of the Chicano Cultural Center and also works with the College Readiness Program, spoke to the students about going to college.

The students also were told about the college Web site and how it could help them.

After the presentation, the students were divided into groups and taken on a tour of the campus. Main stops were the nursing lab and Applied Sciences and Technology building.

Thirty volunteers from Supportive Services helped with the event.

“Everybody just really helped us out,” said Diana Kelly, coordinator and counselor for Supportive Services.

“It takes a few months to organize, but there were some really hard workers,” she said.

Denise Crawford, one of the event’s coordinators, who also coordinates WorkAbility III, said the day’s purpose was to encourage students with disabilities to come to college, even if they don’t go to BC.

“A lot of people think that college is just more history, more math and English, so that’s why we show them the automotive program, the nursing program, those kind of vocational programs so that they go, ‘Oh, OK, maybe I can go this direction or that direction.’ They don’t have to get a degree, they can get a certificate,” she said.

Kelly said that a lot of high school seniors are anxious about going to college.

“Students with disabilities are a lot of times even more anxious because they have special needs, and what we’re trying to show them is that we’re welcoming them, that we want them to come and that we have supportive services for them if they get here, like extra tutoring and accommodations like extra time on their tests, things like that,” shea said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, so that BC is a real option.”

There was a lot of positive response from the high schoolers.

“It was great,” said Nereida Lopez, a senior from Delano. “It was really exciting. We got to find our what college was really like. We actually did learn something. We got to see the opportunities you guys have.”

Tim Vincent, an instructor from Taft High School, also appreciated the event.

“It was very informative. It was very thought out,” he said.

At noon, a lunch of hamburgers was provided, while a drawing for door prizes such as ‘Gades T-shirts and insulated cups was held.

“I’ve had people say they wish we did a high school day for all the high school students,” Crawford said.

“This is the fourth year we’ve done this and it’s always well attended. We always feed them lunch, it’s kind of a draw to get them up here,” she said.

At the end of the morning, the BC Sign and Song class performed.

“There’s been a couple years where I had somebody in my group that’s like, ‘I don’t want to go to BC,’ and then I see them the next year in the fall walking around campus, ‘Oh, you came?’ ‘Yeah, I thought I’d try it.’ That’s cool,” Crawford said.