Peekskill High School College Fair Helps Students Plan for Future

When the Peekskill High School College Fair began almost 20 years ago, it started with a modest six colleges. Over the years, the PHS College Fair has grown tremendously and at its most recent event on October 22, PHS welcomed nearly 50 local colleges to the school to participate in the fair.

The event, which was organized by the school’s College Resource Center Liaison Maria Gordineer and the PHS Counseling Department, was geared towards junior and senior students. The morning featured representatives from a variety of colleges who came to answer any questions the students might have regarding college enrollment.

“The students who come here today will have the chance to speak with some of the same college representatives that will be looking at their applications when our juniors and seniors submit them in the near future,” explained PHS Counseling Department Chair Noel Cabassa. “Our students are here to learn about what they need in terms of SAT scores and GPAs as well as the different requirements needed for the programs they’re interested in.

Aside from simply having a chance to ask questions and pick up pamphlets, students also found out about special opportunities they are eligible to participate in, such as the College of Westchester’s “Crash a Class” event, which allows prospective students to team up with a current college student for the day in order to sit in on classes and tour the campus.

“I think students have a good start by getting this information early on,” said Colleen McGourty, a Field Coordinator for the College of Westchester who attended the fair. “We are a business, technology and healthcare school, so were able to give out a lot of information and help students decide if our school is right for them.”

Those students that attended the fair said that the event was useful in bringing various colleges’ information to them and helping them to decide which schools they wanted to look into further.

“I liked meeting all the representatives and actually talking to someone who knows about the schools as opposed to looking up the school’s information online,” said PHS junior Emily Czerwinski, who plans on majoring in Communications. “[The Fair] really helped a lot. I think is important to get this info early so you know which college is going to be the right place for you. Today really helped me narrow down my choices.”