COSTA MESA : Planning Very Early for College
They may have a way to go before college, but eighth-graders from TeWinkle Middle School got a special preview of campus life this week during a tour of the technology center at Orange Coast College.
During the high-tech tour, the students pressed their faces against the 1,000-gallon aquarium at the science building, sat inside flight simulators and pretended they were pilots, toured the machine shop, marveling all the while at all the metal, then dined shoulder to shoulder with degree-seeking students inside the college cafeteria.
“I might come here after high school,” 13-year-old Justin Townley said. “My aunt and uncle go here.”
Mike Murphy, the assistant principal for the intermediate school, said he hopes the preview will inspire the 31 eighth-graders to think about going to the community college.
“A lot of kids can’t see past Friday,” Murphy said. “But, hopefully, seeing all this will excite them.”
As part of the tour, John Waters, professor of machine technology, showed the students the machine shop and taught them how all of the machines are programmed by computers.
“But no matter how sophisticated the computers get, we still want a human being to operate the machines,” he said. “Because a human being provides the spark and energy.”
College recruiters were also on hand to answer the students’ questions.
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