Caption: Students met in the gym to hear from a representative of the Ohio State . [provided by PACA Instagram]
by Théo Seiji Silva (Warrior Post Reporter / São Paulo, Brazil)
In the months of August and September, the Pan American Christian Academy (PACA) highschool students were periodically called from their classes to participate in unique college visits from universities such as Constructor University, McEwan University, The Ohio State University, and The University of Toronto as they seek to interest students in applying to their institutes of learning this year.
At each college visit to PACA, students were normally called to the cafeteria or the auditorium where they are seated as they would to hear a special speaker at chapel. .After someone began the meeting with prayer, the speaker was introduced and they described the university they represented. Various subjects were presented such as what courses the university offers, the price, community, what day-to-day life is like, housing, the application process, and other general pieces of information.
At the end of the presentation, students were given the opportunity to ask questions. Some universities gave prizes for people who remembered the details shared with them. Because of the interactivity of the presentations, these events normally took up the entire period in which they met.
Mindy Swisher, PACA’s guidance counselor in charge of providing these university visits, explained how the process takes place.
According to Swisher, there are two ways that she connects with college representatives who are interested in coming to PACA. Either university representatives contact her to ask for a time when they can visit, or she will contact a specific university on behalf of one of the current seniors so that they can get help and advice about applying to that requested university.
“I give preference to seniors that have interest in a particular university,” said Swisher. “I will contact that university to see if they have plans to come down and visit.”
Swisher explained that the University of Toronto came on both accounts. That representative had already visited PACA in the past, but there is also a senior at PACA who is interested in applying to that university this year.
According to Swisher, “that is her number one choice of university, so I really wanted her to have an opportunity to see the presentation, to meet someone from the university as well as to be able to talk to them about scholarships.”
The presentation for the more specific universities, like SCAD, (the Art and Design College in Savannah, Georgia) was brought on campus after specific requests from current Grade 12 students.
This presentation was not given to all the high school students. Miss Swisher said it would “only be shown for students that have an interest in that area.”
As PACA regains momentum lost during the pandemic, Swisher is trying to invite as many universities to make their presentations at PACA.
In the future, PACA is planning to do a college fair where 10-20 universities come to PACA simultaneously and present information in a college fair format. This is a big and challenging event to execute, according to Swisher, but she is hopeful that PACA will host this college fair in March or April of 2024.
Jeremy Davis, a teacher at PACA who was present at most of the college visits, speaks both from a teacher’s perspective and as a previous student at PACA.
Davis says that the fact that the school even has college visits is a blessing. He sees these visits as an opportunity for students to be able to talk to the representatives and create a bond between them.
Senior Fransico Morales, has had experience with both the college fair and the college visits. According to Morales, they are here just to give “a little taste” of what the colleges can be like. He prefers to visit a college fair.
At a college fair event, students can visit the booths of colleges and universities that they are specifically interested in and that flexibility provides an advantage to the college fair over the singular visits.
