Thousands of high school students packed the Granada Hills Charter School campus on Saturday, March 22, to explore their futures during the school’s annual college fair.
The fair, presented by Western Association for College Admissions, brought together 130 colleges and universities—from local University of California and California State campuses to East Coast institutions and even international schools as far away as Scotland and Japan.
The goal of the college fair, which has been running for more than 15 years, is to provide families and students information about college life and get their questions answered, said Dr. Christopher Lee, administrative director of counseling at Granada Hills Charter School.
It’s about creating “this excitement early to gear them for college and for their continuing education,” Lee added.
Karly Brockett, president-elect of Western Association for College Admission, said in-person conversations help students connect with those who understand what it’s like to leave home for college—whether across the state or the world.
“We know we have a lot of research and information on the web,” she said, “but that human contact is so important.”
Lee, who previously worked at Palisades Charter High School, severely damaged in the January wildfire, said organizers made a special effort to reach out to families in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities.
The fair kicked off at 11:30 a.m., but the day began earlier with workshops, said Linda Llamas, a college counselor at Granada Hills Charter. They included sessions on financial aid and nursing — in response to growing student demand — and sessions for first-generation college students and Spanish-speaking families. Another workshop focused on pathways to historically Black colleges and universities, Llamas said.
Organizers created a “college fair bingo card” to encourage students to explore schools they might not have considered.
“We want them to be able to have conversations, which I know, again, can be scary, because there’s 130 strangers in front of you,” Llamas said. “So we want to really give them the tools where they can feel that they’re capable of having these conversations.”