The alums broke into small groups and addressed students during the homeroom period at the beginning of the day, offering advice and tips. Inside the team room at the Roundhouse, Jacob Thiessen, who is attending North Texas University, and Jacob Gudith, who is attending Central College in Pella, discussed their thought processes on why they made the decision to further their educations.

“I kind of knew what career path I wanted to go down, and to go down that career path, you need to go to college,” Gudith said. “So I have to go, but it makes a lot of sense to get good experience. You meet a lot of good people. You create a lot of great connections.”

Gudith added that during his senior year, he worked hard to keep his grades up and apply for every scholarship he was eligible for — as he put it, even an extra $500 to $1,000 can go a long way.

“It can be expensive. That extra little scholarship might make a difference,” he said.

From left to right, Angel Sandoval Vigil, Vania Madrigal Ibarra and Rachel Smith, all first-year students at Iowa State University and 2024 MHS graduates, speak to a group of seniors in Wade Judge’s homeroom class on Wednesday.

In the art room, Vania Madrigal Ibarra, Rachel Smith and Angel Sandoval Vigil, who are all freshmen at Iowa State University, shared the importance of asking questions and time management, which becomes incredibly important at the college level because of the less structured environment.

“Schedules in college look a lot different than schedules in high school, I will say that. Each semester has looked a little bit different for me, and so there’s even some days that I don’t have any classes at all — which might seem like a free for all, but in college, it is not,” Smith, who is an education major, said. “Those are my study days. Those are my homework days. I still pretty much go to campus every day because if I stay at my apartment, then I’m not gonna get stuff done.”

Sandoval Vigil added that the amount of free time she has in college is a major adjustment, but she’s used it to slowly build friendships in find activities beyond the daily grind of studying and completing homework. She said her most difficult class thus far is coding, which she came into with no experience, but coding on her own time has been greatly helpful in her learning process. For Madrigal Ibarra, it was trigonometry, and for Smith, it was organic chemistry and macroeconomics.

In another session, Josh Reynolds, who is attending ISU, and Jack Elsberry, who is at Marshalltown Community College, talked about studying engineering and warned that it isn’t for the faint of heart.

“Most classes will start hard, stay hard and end hard,” Elsberry said. “If you’re an engineer — I’m gonna probably be saying that a lot — your life’s a lot harder than what you’re doing, probably, in most of the other majors.”

He also encouraged seniors to apply for scholarships and see what they qualify for depending on academic or athletic achievement as well as family income and need.

“It’s not guaranteed that you’ll get it, obviously, but if you think you can go for it, definitely go for it. And if you don’t think you can get it, I would definitely still try to apply for some of these because they help out a lot,” Elsberry said. “Make sure it’s something you really, really want to do, and if you really, really want to do it, go for it. And if you really want to go into a career, that’s cool too. Do that as well.”

For those who aren’t sure, Reynolds recommended going to MCC for a semester and enrolling in general education classes to see if it’s something they’d like to pursue before going deeply into debt. MCSD College and Career Readiness Counselor Adam Van Arkel and GEAR UP Iowa Senior Class Associate Valerie Troutner sat down for an interview with the T-R are both new to the district this year and were happy to revive the event after it hadn’t been held last winter.

“Most of (the students we asked to come back) were pretty excited about it. We got recommendations from the staff here at the high school and then just students that we knew in our own lives, and those that we talked to were, for the most part, very excited,” Troutner said. “There were a couple that were a little shy and had to think about it a little bit, but I just reassured them they wouldn’t be alone in the room, that we’d partner them with another graduate. So at least they weren’t the only one.”

When asked about the biggest common themes she’s heard between the students she’s spoken to about the high school/college adjustment, Troutner echoed the earlier remarks about the importance of time management. Van Arkel added that the financial aspects of college are another marquee concern, but he said the MCSD and postsecondary institutions in the state have enjoyed a strong, mutually beneficial relationship.

“We’ve had quite a few representatives from various colleges around the state come into the school to visit with the students, and we’ve also done quite a few campus visits taking students to those places to kind of see what campus is like and kind of learn about admissions and campus life in general,” Van Arkel said. “Those have been really good experiences for the kids to kind of get those personal encounters with their next steps.”

Before they left campus — or, in the case of 2024 MHS graduate, MCC student and MCSD paraeducator Cesar Corona, returned to his job — the presenters were treated to a complimentary breakfast in recognition of their efforts in lending a hand to their soon-to-be fellow Bobcat alums.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.