MCC hosts preview event for high school students – Mesa Legend

Hundreds of high school students visited Mesa Community College’s (MCC) Southern and Dobson campus on Oct. 30 to engage with and learn more about the college’s various academic programs. 

Multiple high schools around the valley were invited to the Fall Preview Day event, including Sequoia Charter School, East Valley Academy, AAEC Mesa, and more from the Mesa Public Schools and Tempe Union districts.

Hundreds of high school students walked through an interactive tabling event in the Navajo Room. (Photo: Marcela Allison / Mesa Legend)

More than 500 students walked through an interactive tabling event in the Navajo Room where they were introduced to 25 MCC programs and student resources. Many tables offered engaging activities such as practicing CPR, a virtual escape room, and participating in a podcast.

A high school student, along with MCC’s mascot, Thor, participates in a podcast with an editor of The Mesa Legend student newspaper. (Photo: Marcela Allison / Mesa Legend)

In addition, four classrooms hosted hands-on experiences for students, including crime scene investigating and fingerprinting with the Social Sciences department and activities in the Human Performance Lab in the Health Wellness building. 

Brianna Martinez is a student services analyst and recruitment lead for MCC. She said that after a redesign of the student affairs area, the recruitment team looked for more ways to bring high school students to the college and create more opportunities for engagement that are different from past events. 

“I think the thing that we were trying to do different instead of just like a normal, like a typical resource for just like, you go and you hang out,” Martinez said. “We really wanted to make it as engaging as possible and have interactive activities throughout the day.”

A high school student speaks with staff from Academic Advisement. (Photo: Marcela Allison / Mesa Legend)

The preview event was significant for catching high school students’ attention where they might be prompted to choose dual enrollment with the college, explore early college programming, and just see what the campus has to offer, Martinez said. 

October Keliipuleole is a senior at Mountain View High School. She said the campus visit interested her because she is thinking about attending MCC for its cheaper tuition, and the experience helped her see what the college is like. 

“It’s kind of helped to like just see what the options are and just like, be on a campus and see kind of what it would be like,” Keliipuleole said. “…when you’re graduating, you spend like a lot of time just thinking about it and saying like ‘Oh, what’s college gonna be like’ and all that, but it’s nice to like be here and see everything and get to learn about it and stuff.”

Mesa Community College is a place where dream jobs can be turned into realities. (Photo: Marcela Allison / Mesa Legend)

Many high school students are already familiar with MCC through dual enrollment, but through this preview event they received the opportunity to see the college and directly engage with programs and their educators. 

“It was a really big deal for our team in the recruitment area to kind of, not only that we’re out and about at high schools and community visits, but bring them to our community on campus,” Martinez said.