To offer students an opportunity to visit the college representatives, the counselors hosted the annual college fair on Oct. 24, in the main gym for students to discuss college plans with admission counselors.

“The college fair was beneficial to me because I got to learn more about colleges and more opportunities to know where I want to go,” sophomore Ava Sayas said. “It is crucial because they need it to expand their horizons and know there is more than what they think they want to do.”

According to counselor Annie Walker, the counseling team first connects with the Texas Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers to set the date, and then they can begin reaching out to colleges. 

“They give us almost a year in advance to schedule that,” Walker said. “Then what we do is we communicate with the colleges to see who is going to come, they have to RSVP to us.”

This year, about 100 campuses RSVPed to the event, and senior Fatima Junaid said she felt there were fewer colleges represented this year.

“We have so much more space because of the empty tables, fewer schools have shown up this year,” senior Fatima Junaid said. “My only critique would be that they don’t have many colleges from out of state.”

Although in-state colleges and universities were the majority of vendors, the out of state schools presence helped students learn more about their programs.

“From these colleges, I’m looking at Lamar University and Tennessee,” junior Jack Opstad said. “I want to go into mechanical or electrical engineering.” 

While several classes made their way to the gym to check out the different booths, some students were not able to make it.

“I wish I had gone because I wanted to learn more about colleges in our state because I want to know all my options,” sophomore Avery Petrazio said. “I missed out on an opportunity.”

To ensure students have as many opportunities available to them, Walker said the focus for the event is to offer students as many resources possible.

“The primary goal is for students to really talk to colleges that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise talk to,” Walker said. “See what kind of opportunities, programs they may have and scholarships that they didn’t even realize were offered.”