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| For Immediate Release | Contact: Frances Squire |
| June 26, 2009 | Phone: (559) 934-2134 |
A climbing wall tested the skills of the 5C campers.
Launching rockets, climbing rock walls—it’s all part of the 5C Experience
For two weeks this summer, 160 sixth, seventh and eighth graders took a look at what their future will be like in 2020 as part of the 5C Experience at West Hills College Lemoore.
When the 5C Experience started at the college seven years ago, its goal was to give middle school students a glimpse of college. This year, two former campers were back as college mentors helping students focus on their future.
The camp uses 25 college students, primarily those planning on teaching careers, as mentors. Most belong to the T.E.A.M. Teach program, which was started by WHCL instructor James Preston, who also helped start 5 C.
Avenal’s Diana Enriquez was 13 when she first attended the 5C camp as part of an Educational Talent Search program. Today she’s a college student serving as a mentor for children from Lemoore, Hanford, Laton, Avenal, Stratford and Fresno as part of the same camp.
Connie Llamas of Lemoore was the other camper turned mentor.
Many of the students, like Diana was, were sponsored or attended the camp on scholarship. The Hanford Elementary School District sent 70 students to this year’s camp including 40 who were sponsored through the HESD Foundation and an additional 30 students from their migrant program.
Diana, the first in her family to even think about college, said that 5C helped open her eyes to college and the opportunity it presents. She said that has been more important than ever since she had a baby her senior year at Avenal High School.
“I’ve done a lot of research about teen pregnancy,” she said. “Three in 10 girls will have a baby before they’re 20 and only 1.5 percent of them will graduate from college. I want to be a positive role model for my daughter and sister so I’m going to be in that 1.5 percent.”
Diana will begin her last semester at West Hills in August and from there she plans to transfer to the Fresno Pacific University liberal studies program at West Hills College Lemoore on her way to becoming a teacher.
Several of Diana’s cousins attended the camp this year. Morning classes, taught by top teachers from throughout the San Joaquin Valley, gave them a look at art, technology, writing, science and physical activities like rock wall climbing.
One of the most popular activities this year was a NASA rocket-building class conducted by Dan Loewen, a NASA trained science teacher from Fresno. After building rockets, the students launched them from a grassy area on the college campus measuring how high they flew and checking their designs through survival of an egg in each rocket capsule.
Teacher Ellice Blevins worked with “metal mania,” during which students created an art piece from foil tracing and paint.
WHCL culinary instructor Christian Raia worked with the students in Food 4 Thought, which not only covered cooking but also etiquette and nutrition.
A trio of teachers, Susan Drew, Teri Simas and Bridgette Maciel, taught History Starts Now! , a writing and technology session.
Afternoon during the camp were spent on mentor-led electives.
Diana talked about her interaction with a camper with limited English skills.
“He was having a hard time at the start of the camp. He said his parents work all the time and get home late and he wasn’t interacting much with the other campers. I was able to speak to him in Spanish and I encouraged him to use English as much as possible.
“By the end of camp,” Diana says, “he told her he was going to come to West Hills and play soccer.”
Diana’s story, and that of the camper she helped this summer, shows the true value of the 5C Experience.
Photos from the camp and a video about it are available on the WHCL website. The camp was started by WHCL instructors James Preston and Joel “Jody” Ruble. Preston leads the T.E.A.M. Teach program and Ruble heads Upward Bound for the college.
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West Hills Community College District serves the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and is part of the California Community College System. Its two colleges, West Hills College Coalinga, which includes North District Center, Firebaugh, and West Hills College Lemoore, serve more than 7,000 students on campus and online each semester.