Annual college fair a major attraction

Tuskegee University of Alabama chose not to attend Spokane’s annual National College Fair on Tuesday because of the hurricanes, but the largest number yet of recruiting schools – 136 – cast their nets to about 6,000 college hopefuls.

Students came from 125 miles in each direction of the Convention Center to downtown Spokane.

Keri Cederquist, 17, a senior at Bonners Ferry High School in Idaho, waited in line at the booth for Regent’s College of London.

The British flag hanging behind the booth caught her attention.

“I want to get out and see as much of the world as I can,” Cederquist said. “How are you ever going to know about yourself until you go out and see things?”

Regent’s recruiter, Jamie Maguire, who’s based in Boston, said he came to Spokane as an experiment. He generally sticks to the Eastern seaboard for recruiting, and he anticipated one box of materials would be sufficient. He was wrong.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Maguire said. “When I first got here I couldn’t keep up.”

In 30 minutes, his materials were gone. He resorted to having students write their contact information in a notebook.

“From what they’ve been telling me, they all want to get out of Spokane,” Maguire said.

The recruiter from Australia’s Bond University had similar luck.

That’s not to say the staple state schools – universities of Idaho, Washington and Oregon – didn’t line up students.

Seattle’s University of Washington was large enough for some students, like Delfino Osorio of Bridgeport High School, who lives in a town that’s about 80 percent Hispanic in Douglas County, near Brewster.

His parents work in the fruit orchards. He works in a fast food restaurant and hopes to become a computer engineer. “It’s practically like starting a new life,” Osorio said. “No one knows you, and you don’t know anyone.”

As part of the college fair, organizers put counselors in a booth to answer questions from parents and students alike.

Kristen Doyle, a Gonzaga University student and intern counselor at North Central High School, said many students are still overwhelmed by the process. There were many questions about financial aid and scholarships. Money’s a huge concern for most, but not everyone.

A Lewis and Clark High School student asked her if he could major in giving tattoos. Doyle looked through a national guide to academic concentrations, but she had to tell him, “I don’t think there’s a major for that.”

Organizers said there were more parents at the early session than in years past. One parent approached the counselors for financial aid information after collecting pamphlets from a list of schools prepared by her child, who was sick at home.

From their booth in the corner, Doyle and her fellow counselors could people-watch and soak in the varying fashions. Among the baggy jeans and T-shirts were a couple of serious-looking students in suits and ties. Some girls wore sweats or sweatshirts while some looked like they stepped off a model runway, Doyle said.

“It’s amazing the different worlds they’re all from,” she said.

Off in a corner, sitting on the floor and watching Japanese animation on a laptop computer, James Langley and Kristen Persyn, both from Newport High School, waited for their ride to show up.

Langley would like to get into video game design. The conference gave him a chance to talk to people about a school that offers that program. It’s not just fun and play. There’s serious math involved.

“I’ll have to go through some serious school to get it all down,” Langley said.

While their high school encourages them to go for college, Persyn said everyone knows that not everyone will make it through.

“When I grow up, I want to be a whale,” Langley said.

“Yeah,” Persyn said. “We’ll be whales.”

There may not be a major for that either.