Leuzinger HS Students Explore College Life
Prospective science majors from the Leuzinger High School CARS Program visited El Camino College over the summer for a special STEM Day event. Coordinated by the ECC Office of Outreach and School Relations, 18 Leuzinger High School students caught a glimpse of college life as a science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, major.
ECC Natural Sciences Division Dean Amy Grant joined Outreach and School Relations Director Julieta Arámburo, a Leuzinger High School alumna, to welcome the students. The group then participated in a panel discussion moderated by four El Camino College MESA students. The panel gave first-hand perspectives about what it's like to study STEM in college. Students also attended a hands-on chemistry workshop by Dean Grant, participated in a campus tour led by student ambassadors and Outreach and School Relations staff, saw a planetarium show presented by Shimonee Kadakia, and extracted DNA from strawberries with biology instructor Polly Parks.
Students asked many questions and left with some El Camino College items to take home. The event was so successful, future collaboration with the CARS program is in the works, along with a possible for-credit class designed for the students for next summer.
Leuzinger High School's CARS (College Access, Readiness and Success) is a five-year program that supports students from their freshman year of high school through their freshman year of college. CARS assists students academically with after-school tutoring twice a week and a summer STEM program, while helping them develop a better understanding of what it takes to succeed in higher education.
