Over 2,000 people flocked to Cerritos College’s Falcon Square to kickstart the new semester by attending Welcome Day on Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Awaiting the thousands of, largely, new student attendees and family were dozens of booths set up by clubs and organizations on campus, plenty of staff members to direct them to activities, food provided by Hotdog on a Stick, Cerritos College’s mascot, Franco Falcon, and Cerritos College President Dr. Jose Fierro.
Fierro formally started celebrations and activities with a speech where he highlighted the importance of college on students’ futures as well as quickly completing community college in two years.
Fierro also gave away bookstore gift cards worth hundreds of dollars to students who answered trivia questions whilst, Jeopardy, Kahoot! Home Depot, and Wii Sports music played in the background.
Following the speech, attendees were free to begin embarking on campus tours and exploring the many different booths like the one set up by the Student Alliance for Equality, also known as the S.A.F.E. club, which is part of the LGBTQ Pride program on campus and saw a lot of traffic.
“Welcome Day is such a great opportunity for not just the LGBTQ program, but for all of the programs and departments on campus to really invite students to not only know about the programs, but to preparticipate,” Antonio “Nio” Lavermon remarked.
On the topic of the Pride program, Lavermon, the Pride program facilitator and liaison, organized and led a Pride Parade with the S.A.F.E. club that swept through the event at 1 p.m.
Other clubs and organizations also showed off their work: the cosmetology program had some intricately designed horror doll heads made by students on display and the Falcon’s Nest had a pop-up market with fresh produce and pastries and advertised their support services available to students.
Ashley Yim, a sociology major who’s part of the environmental and sociology clubs, was promoting the naive plant sanctuary at its dedicated booth in collaboration with the environmental club.
One of the new students who attended the event was Ahneya Cross, who’s currently a criminology major.
“I’m ready, but I’m a little nervous because it’s college and it’s a whole different experience from high school, so yeah, I’m excited for sure. For starting new; change in life,” Cross described when asked about how she’s feeling about starting college.
Kevin Perez, a nursing major, said the campus was a nice and friendly place, and found Franco kinda funny.
Franco had been taking pictures with students and assisted people in checking in at the student check-in booth.
Also of note was the construction of the new student services building as its support beams and structures loomed over the crowd whilst the thunder of hammers and heavy equipment rang out over the festivities.
Also part of the auditory environment of Welcome Day was various genres of music DJed by Collective Visions’s Seth Reeder, a former student, and Dan Boi.
In addition to the Welcome Day celebrations, there were also several other important events taking place on campus: a robotics event, a volleyball scrimmage featuring 16 teams from different community colleges and a Senior Fair hosted by Congresswoman Linda Sanchez along with a meet and greet.
