By Mario A. Cortez

Southwestern College opened its campus to over 600 students from all 13 high schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District this past Tuesday for its College Preview Day event.. Future Southwestern College students were able to become acquainted with the campus and the abundant professional, academic and social clubs and programs offered at the college.

The visiting students began their tour of the campus by attending a prep rally at the recently renovated DeVore Stadium where they were officially initiated as Southwestern College Jaguars. After the rally, students took a tour of several campus facilities such as the Cesar Chavez Center, the campus library, bookstore and other facilities that students will find themselves using during their time at Southwestern College.

SWC’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Kathy Tyner, highlighted some of the experiences the visitors got to take part in.

“We are showing off a very fun activity called Festival of Nations which is put on by the Associated Students. We will also have the Majors Pavilion, which is where all the academic programs will be set up to inform students of our academic plans. Incoming students will have the chance to walk around and ‘shop’ for a possible major today.

Student Senator-At-Large Marisol Ricochea spoke about the number of clubs at Southwestern College and the wide array of options displayed through the Festival of Nations showcase.

“There are about 50 to 60 clubs with 20 participating in this fair. We want to represent different cultures here today and show to everybody that we don’t all come from just one place, that all of us come from many different countries.”

Vice-President of Club Affairs at Southwestern College Aileen Contreras spoke about campus organizations with La Prensa San Diego.

“We have a lot of variety as to types of clubs to join or organizations where you can bond and have a great college experience. We have a wide range of support and academic organizations as well as some leisure organizations.”

Campus organizations extending their welcome to students entering Southwestern College this upcoming fall 2016 semester included learning communities such as the MESA (Math Engineering and  Science Achievement) program which is an academic enrichment program that supports economically disadvantaged students seeking a bachelor’s degree from a four-year institution. Another program that students were introduced to was Puente which aids students from populations that do not have high enrollment numbers in four-year universities.

“I got to look at some majors I think of taking like art and music,” said Ana who was one of the many visiting students walking through Majors Pavilion. “The campus is really nice and there are a lot of programs for us.”

Southwestern College currently has over 16,000 students enrolled in its multiple campus locations and offers over 300 associate degree and certificate options.