A busy day was in store for the Long Beach City College High School Outreach team and staff as the annual Viking Preview Day took place, an event that showcases a piece of what LBCC has to offer for incoming graduating high school students on April 14.
Booths were set up around Long Beach City College’s LAC campus, each booth representing different programs and majors, as professors connected with and informed graduating high school students and their families.
For high school senior Lily Lucas and her family, they’ve been keeping up with events in Long Beach City College and were happy to finally get a look around the LAC campus with a tour provided by LBCC during the preview day.
“We’ve been really interested in this, well school, so we’ve been coming here more often. We’re finally looking at all the buildings and I’m really excited.” Lucas said.
Informed about the event through various notices sent by LBCC, students from different high schools filled the quads by the start of the preview day at 5 p.m.
Viking Preview Day invited high school seniors and their families, one family member in attendance, Rosa Reyes, noted why it was important for them to be present in their students’ potential future at LBCC.
“I feel like they get to explore different things, like clubs, any outreach there is. I feel like that is something that really helps keep their education, it makes them feel like they are a part of a community college.” Reyes said.
Director of High School Outreach and Educational Partnerships, LooLoo Amante Tupua, put together the preview day. Tupua works to help all incoming students get ready to go to college at LBCC. She’s been at LBCC for 7 years.
“Our Viking Preview Day is our annual college open house where we welcome incoming and prospective students and their families to visit our campus,” Tupua said.
Tupua also spent her time at the event connecting with attendees and worked to inform them about what academic programs Viking Preview day had available to not only high school graduates, but their families as well.
“Its also nice because we invite students and their families, and what often happens is a parent or a sibling is like, oh dang, you guys got this? And so it’s kind of nice because it becomes a domino effect.” LooLoo added.
The day started with a resource fair, then broke out into group workshops, which included help with financial aid, keys to success with first-year experience, transfer center resources and drop-in support at the welcome center.
“It’s a really big event for us, we attract probably around over 300 plus people, because it’s not only students but their families as well,” Tupua said.
The second preview day for LBCC will take place on April 25, located at the college’s TTC campus, working to inform more potential students about the many academic programs and student services LBCC has to welcome them.
