Incoming high school seniors will have the advantage of early registration as a new initiative has been created for them starting this Fall.

Due to the community’s support of the school by passing bond measures over the years and the overall support of the college educational system, EC has decided to allow graduating high school seniors to register for the 2013 Fall semester earlier than other students. Students will be receiving informational postcards via mail from the college with further information on how this initiative will work.

EC wants to give students of area high schools the chance to extend their educational goals by allowing them to get the classes they need and giving them a helping hand in pursuing their goals as college students.

“We want to provide an extra opportunity for our in district high school students to get classes,” Jeanie Nishime, vice president of student and community advancement, said. “We feel that our community has really supported us in terms of our bond measures so we wanted to make sure that students within our community had access to classes.”

The overall goal of this initiative is to make sure students receive the classes that they need and are able to register for these classes earlier. It will also allow them to get in touch with counselors and have a better idea of what they want to do with their future careers as an EC student.

“It will help them make their commitment to El Camino early and hopefully meet with a counselor, do the assessments, and go through orientation so that they’re on the right track,” Nishime, said. “So that when they come here they are prepared and if they’re better prepared, hopefully they’ll be more successful.”

Currently enrolled students understand the importance of being able to have the opportunity of early registration and guidance that wasn’t available to them from the beginning. They emphasized that having to deal with the struggles such as finding classes that they need and being a new student at the same time can be a bit intimidating.

“For the new people coming in it would help them to definitely be less frustrated with trying to get classes,” Vanessa Cooper, 25, English major. “I think its good that EC is doing this for those students.

The importance of having a helping hand while you’re trying to adapt to the college experience for the first time is something that students understand very well. Students believe that this initiative would be very helpful for those graduating high school and are coming to EC.

“It is important to kind of have that guidance you need so you’re not going into this blind sighted,” Breanna Simpson, 22, business major, said. “School can be a lot to take on for your first time so getting a head start on that would be very helpful.”