West Coast College Tour Allows Students to Dream Big!
Each year, for the past decade, A Bridge for Kids has hosted a college tour throughout Southern California over spring break. This trip allows low-income teens who we support a chance to tour several schools in their home state. We have found that these trips open each student’s eyes to the various types of colleges, rural vs urban, large vs small, liberal arts focus vs STEM focus, etc.; and help them decide where they want to spend their college years.
This year (a record) 23 students were selected to visit 7 schools over 5 days. For some of our students, this was the first time venturing out of San Diego County. For many, it was the first time they had visited a campus outside of San Diego, and for all of them, it was a life-changing experience that would not have been available to them without the help of A Bridge for Kids and our supporters.
The trip started at 8:30 AM on Monday with a visit to UC Irvine. Most of the group was impressed with both the campus and many students commented that they liked "the feel" of the school more than they had expected. Former ABFK student Gialan Tonhat (Escondido Charter HS Class of 2019, UCI Class of 2023) was our personal host and he was as entertaining as he was informative! Tuesday we visited perennial favorites UCLA and USC and had ABFK alumna Brianna Diaz (Castle Park HS Class of 2015, UCLA Class of 2019) and Lilian Huynh (The Preuss School, UCSD Class of 2022, USC Class of 2026) as our hosts as they showed us around their respective schools. The next two days were spent touring Pitzer, Claremont McKenna, and Pomona College. With roughly 1,500-2,000 students enrolled at each of these schools, the students had the chance to experience a much smaller college feel as compared to the larger state schools we visited earlier in the week. Heading home on Friday we held our first-ever Scavenger Hunt at UC Riverside (which was won by the team of Htun Win, Camila Castellanos, Valerie Colin, and Heather Woldai) and then eventually made our way back to the A Bridge for Kids offices in UTC.
A Bridge For Kids appreciates the generous donations and grants we have received to underwrite the costs of our college campus tours. The opportunity to visit a variety of schools each year has opened many students’ eyes to the possibility of an opportunity to attend the college of their dreams. For more information about our College Campus Tours and how you can support this initiative please contact Grace Jo at Gjo@abridgeforkids.org.
"The A Bridge for Kids Campus Tour made the stressful selection process much easier and helped me find my home for the next four years." – Sam Martin, The Preuss School- Pitzer College Class of 2019