San Fran high schoolers learn about City College at FRISCO Day

 

The Guardsman

By Ivan Huang

The second annual FRISCO Day event, held on April 13 at the Multi-use building on Ocean campus, was designed to help high school seniors from San Francisco Unified School District’s 2012 graduating class acquire the tools for college success.

According to a 2011 study, The High School Report XII: The Placement, Performance and Persistence of New Students from SFUSD High Schools, conducted by the college’s Research and Planning office, around 35 percent of San Francisco’s 2009 graduating class went on to enroll at City College.

However, results of placement tests given to these new students show a gap between the basic skills proficiency of SFUSD graduates and what is required for a successful transition to college.

Of those tested, only 8 percent demonstrated college-level English skills, while 30 percent placed into college-level math. Of the same group of graduates, 77 percent were evaluated to have only basic English skills and 25 percent had only basic math skills.

FRISCO Day which stands for FRIday = Successful College Opportunities, is intended to help SFUSD graduates find tools to overcome these handicaps.

Students attended various workshops to help demystify the City College experience. Held in the Multi-use building, some workshops taught students how to register for classes, how to transfer to a 4-year college, or informed students on the programs offered at City College.

Designed to add a bit of fun, while at the same time educating incoming freshmen, booths and exhibits were posted along the east parking lot of the Multi-use building. These booths represented many of the clubs and programs offered at City College.

“We’re just here trying to promote the many clubs we have to offer here at CCSF,” said Vincent, a member of the Poetry for the People club. “These clubs give students an opportunity to enjoy participating in a hobby or express themselves outside of taking classes here at school.”

At the beginning of the event, students were each handed bags that included a student handbook and planner, a pencil, a folder including a survey and a “passport” for students.

The passports were part of a raffle drawing that could potentially win students a free laptop computer.

In order for the students to participate in the raffle, they were supposed to attend workshops and visit booths, each time acquiring a stamp as proof that they attended at least 3 workshops and 6 resource booths.

“The purpose of this event is to really assist students from high school to college, so that they could reach their educational goal,” said John Ho, a counselor from the Asian Pacific American Student Success program and a presenter at the “how to register for classes” workshop.

Although many of the high school students chose to leave the event early after their schools had dropped them off on campus, the students who did stay gained a lot of important information. And more importantly, as one of the workshops explained, they would also receive a guarantee of priority registration which would help them more easily get into their preferred classes during their first semester at City College.