Our Annual Picnic

June 2023

June 2023// by Donna Guldimann

New Students gathered for the Annual POE-South Bay Picnic on Monday, June 12 in Vasona Park. New students are required to attend and can invite family members to join and learn more about the scholarship program. On hand were the mentors, board members, and group leaders of the ‘table talks’. One of the most successful activities of the picnics has been what we now call ‘table talks’. The students are grouped at picnic tables by where they are going off to college in the fall. A host who is attending the same college or the same type of college leads the table and starts off with various questions, inviting everyone to share their enthusiasm and concerns. The comments later are often ‘we want more table talk time’!

At this year’s picnic there were 11 new students from Lincoln, Pioneer, and Independence High Schools in San Jose.

They are going to UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Stanford, USC, San Jose Community College, and San Jose State University. The majors include pre-nursing, mechanical engineering, biology, architecture, electrical engineering, computer engineering, bio medical engineering, and international policy. The colleges they are attending are impressive along with their courses of study.

Mentor Pedro Hernandez Ramos and his mentee, Fernando, who will be a senior at SJSU majoring in civil engineering, held an open conversation before the group.

They discussed what Fernando wished he had done differently, what his successes were, the benefits of joining activities and clubs, and the value of having a mentor.

Also included in the program was a short presentation about how to handle finances over the next 4+ years in college. With POE-South Bay’s scholarship help it is the hope that students don’t have to take out many loans.

It was an unusually cold and blustery evening in the park, but good vibes were felt as mentors and mentees met for the first time, and students connected with others going to their colleges. The photos show some chilly attendees, and also many warm smiles.