Panel of Samo alumni advise students on the college process

Traditionally, high schoolers attend four-year colleges after graduation. However, there are other paths that people can take after Samo, such as going to community college, getting a job at the peace corps or taking a gap year and traveling to Spain. Some people even go to culinary or an arts school.On Tuesday, May 27, Samo held a Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) Alumni Panel in the cafeteria. At the event, Samo alumni talked about their college experiences and answered questions about life after Samo."By bringing recent graduates back to their alma mater to share their successes, challenges and lessons learned, students and parents alike will learn first hand about the transition to college and 'Life After Samohi,'" panel coordinator Diane Reynolds said.According to Reynolds, nine Samo alumni who have graduated Samo in either 2012 or 2013 participated in the event, including some from Santa Monica College (SMC), Brown and Yale. The panelists were provided with a series of questions from Reynolds focusing on their transitions from high school to college and their first years at college.Rachel Bristol ('12), a Samo alum and SMC student who will transfer to UCLA, was rejected at all the colleges she applied to despite having great grades and participating in many electives. Bristol decided to participate in the panel to share her experience."I felt incredibly lost my senior year of high school because I was rejected to the universities I applied to," Bristol said. "Despite having parents and a sibling who attended SMC and knowing how excellent of a school it is, I still felt that I would be miserable there. However, I've had an amazing and very successful two years at SMC completing GE requirements, major requirements, building a strong GPA and gaining experience in the fields I am interested in."Bristol wanted the attending students to see the variety of perspectives and paths that they will be able to go into during the upcoming years."Whether [students] attend a college out of state, a UC, a CSU, or attend SMC and transfer to a school of their choice, they will be able to have really great experiences that will allow them to grow as an individual," Bristol said.According to Reynolds, the event started 20 years ago as a way to celebrate and welcome home the freshmen and sophomores from college. They would then talk about their experiences.Samo student Ariel Silverman ('15), who feels academically prepared for college, believes in the importance of  having a plan for after graduation."People should have clear goals and structure their lives to a path geared towards achieving those goals," Silverman said. "It's always valuable to hear from people who were in the same position as you are at one point, and have now progressed to other experiences."Ivan Rios-Fetchko ('13) advised current Samo students to find universities that offer large endowments."Don't be afraid to call up your admissions officers and ask for bigger scholarships," Rios-Fetchko said. "There's no harm in trying, and you never know what might happen."Reynolds hopes that students and parents will leave the panel with knowledge of the diverse paths that students can follow for a college experience. Although the panel will only have students who are attending a four-year college or are transferring from SMC, Reynolds would like to have a variety of panelists in the future."I did try to get a student who took a gap year, but he [didn't respond] back in time," Reynolds said. "Traditionally, we haven't sought alumni heading straight for employment or to trade schools, but that would be an interesting angle to take in future years ... And I'd be supportive of it."cyen@thesamohi.comMuhammad Yusuf Tarr contributed to this report.