Two Penticton High students said they thoroughly enjoyed their first day on a college campus and will seriously consider enrolling at Okanagan College in Penticton after attending Tuesday’s Experience OC event.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Penticton campus invited Grade 10 and 11 students from high schools across the South Okanagan and Similkameen to spend a full day at the college.
Not only did they get to take sessions in areas of personal interest, but they got a brief tour of the campus and full access to the teaching staff during the learning sessions.
Marija Sulamun, 17, and her good friend Kristen Anderson, 16, both Grade 11 students at Penticton Secondary School, said they had a great time on Tuesday.
“It gave us a really good feel of what college life will be like in a couple of years,” said Sulamun. “We got to see what the classrooms look like and help make up our mind if we want to go further with our education.
“The teachers were also very nice and easy to talk to and answered any of the questions we had.”
Sulamun is interested in a career in real estate, so she signed up for sessions in marketing and office administration and learned a lot at both sessions, she said.
Both instructors organized fun games to encourage student participation and the sessions flew by, she said.
“We got to do a lot of fun stuff, which I wasn’t expecting,” she said. “The marketing teacher even had prizes to win free Tim Hortons gift certificates and I won a $5 gift certificate, so that was pretty cool.”
Her brother Radivoj Bogdanovic, 24, studied marketing for two years at Okanagan College and really enjoyed his time there so she’s seriously considering following in his footsteps, she said.
She also like the “vibe” on the campus, she said.
“It seems like a very open place and fun environment and I don’t know if I would feel like that going to a large university,” she said.
Anderson echoed many of the same thoughts.
She has a passion for physics and astronomy and the fact a small college like Okanagan College offers diplomas in both disciplines has her strongly considering pursuing her post-secondary education at the Penticton campus, she said.
“I’m really thinking about coming here for at least one year to see how I like it and to get adapted to post-secondary life,” she said. “I truly love physics and being able to study what I love in my hometown has a lot of appeal.”
The fact the campus is small and teaching staff is so friendly and helpful was also something she’s not going to forget when eventually deciding where to pursue her post-secondary studies, said Anderson.
Anderson and Sulamun said they would highly recommend that fellow young students attend the Experience OC event in the future.
“It was a great day,” said Sulamun. “We learned a lot and everyone was very nice, so I really enjoyed it.”
