Puente and Pescadero High School Host Second Annual Career Night

Puente de la Costa Sur (PUENTE) and Pescadero High School hosted the Second Annual Career Night from 6-9 p.m. Friday at the Pescadero High School Gym for local students and their families.

The night’s keynote speaker, José Ivan Arreola, Outreach Coordinator for E4FC (Educators for Fair Consideration), has long been a strong voice speaking out against racism, inequality, and oppression. Born in Durango, México, and a graduate of Santa Clara University, Arreola has a compelling personal story of an undocumented student who went on to be a community organizer and leader.

After Arreola’s talk, a diverse group of 10 professionals, all Latino and bilingual, shared their stories and answered questions about their academic and professional choices in small breakout groups, in either Spanish or English.

Career Night aims to inspire students who will be the first in their family to attend college with information about possible academic and career paths. The program, one of few of its kind in the region, helps students and their parents gain the tools needed to succeed in school and life. Families will be given packets with bilingual resources ranging from examples of “road maps” to college, tips on what to do in middle and high school, resource materials from E4FC with guides for students and parents, and more. Materials focus not only on what students should do to prepare for college, but on important questions and advice for their parents, whose support is so critical.

To end the evening, there was a raffle with prizes from iTunes gift cards to a Tablet and much more! Dinner will be provided to all participants. List of presenters were:

• Laura Franco, Attorney at Law
• Sandra Mendez, Academic Counselor, Cañada College
• Gloria Arrellano, Radio Univisión (Latino media)
• Magdalena Ruiz, UCSF graduate student (public health professional)
• Maria Frias Morales, Early Childhood Educator
• Elfego Felix, Environmental Protection Agency, San Francisco (environmental engineer)
• Luis Soria, Engineer PG&E
• George Collyer, Psychiatrist