On January 11, 2013, SJHHS Alumni returned to the theater to share with current juniors and seniors their college experiences and advice at College Unplugged.
Michelle Almanza from Loyola Marymount University, Karen Hernandez from Saddleback and Tyler Bickel from CSU San Jose graduated last year while Connor O’Modhrain from Texas Christian University, Lauren Cabral from USC and Jacob Vargas from FIDM graduated in 2011.
Cabral started off as a freshman at Saddleback, however due to her grades and dedication, she was able to skip sophomore year completely and attend USC as a junior.
Students clearly enjoyed the assembly because “the crowd was completely engaged,” said Ann Bergen.
“What makes it interesting is seeing kids just a couple years older than you doing what you want to do,” said Bergen.
When asked about changes from high school to college, Bickel answered, “It’s actually something you want to do… something you are really passionate about, which is different than high school.”
Many of the alumni paid for their college through financial aid and student loans. However some were lucky enough to get scholarships. FIDM gave out a $1,000 scholarship to Jacob for the ROP class he was enrolled in at SJHHS. Tyler Bickel even received a $200 scholarship for his asthma. Other scholarships were also given out to other students as well.
The students highly suggested an early registration due to the fact that classes fill up extremely fast.
“At San Jose its really impacted… just don’t freak out, talk to your counselors and you should get the classes you want,” said Bickel.
College Unplugged has been an annual event for the past four years, however, “last year we had four out of five of the students as Freshmen, and they were not all SJHHS alumni,” said Bergen. This was the first year the event had all SJHHS students from both graduating classes, which added a lot to the event.