Jose de Wit
SUN Staff Writer
McCurdy School was the place to be Sept. 19 for Northern New Mexico’s college-bound students.
The school’s gym that morning was crowded with representatives from colleges throughout the state and beyond, all eager to recruit the region’s top high school students at McCurdy’s annual college fair.
The fair was useful for students shopping around for a college education because they got to learn what each school has to offer, Española Valley High School senior Nathan Lopez said. That high school sent 25 juniors and seniors to the fair, teacher Selina McGinn said.
Lopez said he has gotten a good overview from his school counselor of how to make the transition to college, but it was only at the fair that he learned which two schools in New Mexico offer the major he wants to pursue.
“I want to be a game warden,” Lopez said. “(The fair) is helping me out a lot. I knew (New Mexico State University) had a forest wildlife program, but I didn’t know Western (New Mexico University) had one, too.”
Española Valley High School senior Tiara Lavalsit browsed several booths at the fair, but was disappointed her dream school was not there. She has her heart set on studying political science at Stanford University in California.
“I want to help people,” Lavalsit said. “I figure government is a good way to do that.”
Rachel Chacon and Alejandra Branch came to the fair with a group of about 15 students from Coronado High School. The two juniors still have a year to decide what to study in college. Which is just as well — both like drawing and math, and are torn between a list of possible majors that include accounting, engineering and architecture, they said. Still, the fair gave them a good idea of what schools are out there and what to expect when they fill out applications next year, they said.
“I’m not too familiar (with the college application process). But I have a cousin who went to college who’s going to help me,” Chacon said. “And we’ve looked into quite a few schools, like New Mexico Tech.”
For colleges at the fair, the effort of attending paid off. New Mexico Tech recruiter Santana Lopez said more students than she could count filled out applications or requested information on the school, and five even came prepared with high school transcripts.
McCurdy High School senior Megan VanderVossen was one of those students. VanderVossen plans to study forensic science. She said she will likely attend Adams State College in Colorado, just like many of her relatives did, but decided to apply to other schools such as New Mexico Tech, too.
“You know, just to have more choices,” VanderVossen explained. “Plus, to see what kind of financial aid they offer me.”
The cost of attending college was foremost on students’ minds at the fair. Pojoaque High School senior Michael Perez and Española Valley High School senior Ray Romero said they visited most booths at the fair, but are setting their sights exclusively on in-state universities.
“The tuition is more out of state,” Romero said.
St. John’s College financial aid director Michael Rodriguez said tuition was among the topics he was asked about most frequently at the fair. Rodriguez said St. John’s covers up to 100 percent of the private college’s $38,854-a-year tuition costs, depending on each student’s needs. The college also recently started a program that pays students to participate in summer internships, he said.
Like a good part of students at the fair, Romero plans to go into engineering. For Romero, it was a summer at Northern New Mexico College’s science, technology, engineering and math summer camp that “turned (him) on” to engineering.
Lopez said most area student interested in attending New Mexico Tech were first introduced to the school when competing in the state Science Fair, which takes place on the university’s campus in Socorro.
Lopez said she has noticed a lot of interest from Northern New Mexican students in careers in engineering and the sciences.
New Mexico Univeristy recruiter André Jackson agreed.
“A lot of the students we get are interested in engineering, also a lot of pre-professional degrees like pre-med and pre-law,” Jackson said.