Samo students take advantage of annual college fair

Samo’s 33rd annual college fair took place on Thursday, Oct. 10 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the South Gym and Cafeteria where 120 universities, colleges, trade schools and service institutions, both domestic and international, were represented in part of “Transfer Days, College Nights”. Many of the same four-year institutions that attend the fair at Samo at night also present at SMC’s Transfer Day event held earlier in the day. Transfer days are held at SMC for college students who want to transfer to four-year colleges. Later at night, those same representatives came to Samo for the college fair. The idea is to maximize student exposure to these colleges and institutions as efficiently as possible.The Samo PTSA runs and financially supports the college fair with help from the school’s administration and the college center. PTSA members Yolanda Lewis, Lisa Blodgett, Joan Krenik and Melissa Hannant have been the co-chairs of the fair for the past four years.Admissions representatives from different colleges set up tables with brochures as well as informational and promotional materials from their schools. During the fair, students and families had a chance to speak with the representatives as they walked up and down the aisles, getting a feel of the schools and programs offered. “Think of it as a buffet of colleges setting out some informational ‘appetizers’,” Lewis said.The college fair committee chair organized staggered time entrances to allow priority to older grades. Seniors were allotted the 6:00 pm to 6:30 p.m. time slot, joined by juniors at 6:30 p.m. and finally freshman and sophomores at 7 p.m. Cydney Merritt (’20) believes the college fair to be a success and found that it aided her in narrowing down the list of schools she is interested in attending.“The college fair really helped me to not only explore new colleges, but to clarify which I am truly interested in and if they are best for me. I think students should attend the college fair because we have the privilege of having all of these representatives come to our school and we should take advantage of it. It also gives us the opportunity to make good connections that could help us in the future,” Merritt said.