“I feel like college would be a scary and stressful experience but this day definitely eased my nerves,” said Sophomore, Gabby Roman. On Wednesday, November 6, the sophomore class at Greater Latrobe High School took a field trip to tour local colleges including IUP, Pitt Johnstown, Pitt Greensburg, Seton Hill University, Saint Vincent College, and Westmoreland County Community College. Each student’s college selection is correlated to the career interests different colleges may offer.
Career Pathways Coordinator, Jessica Yetter, has been at GLSD for six years. She has planned this field trip annually since she began in 2018 for the sophomore class. In previous years, the field trip was taken with the freshmen. Mrs. Yetter explained her reasoning behind choosing the sophomore class to take this field trip. “This used to be a freshman-year field trip, but we switched it to the sophomore class because we found that freshmen just aren’t quite ready yet to visit a college campus. It’s overwhelming for them, so we switched it to sophomore year.”
On Wednesday morning, six buses departed from the high school, dividing 230 students into six different colleges. At each college, students got the chance to tour the campus, eat in the dining halls, walk through dorms, and get an overview of the programs offered at each particular institution.
The tours allowed students to think about the kind of college setting they may want to have in the future. “Some students may go to a college and really like that it offers a lot of activities and clubs and some students may say they don’t like that the college is so small or that it might be in a rural setting,” said Mrs. Yetter.
This experience is a great opportunity for students to consider what the future might hold for them. “We are trying to give students opportunities to gain information so they can make better-informed decisions about their future plans,” said Mrs. Yetter.
The staff at GLHS works hard to make this a unique field trip for their students. Not many high schools nearby offer this kind of field trip. “I don’t think any schools locally offer this type of field trip. I did actually receive an email from a school that reached out because they heard we offer something like this and they are interested in doing the same so they wanted to get some information about it,” explained Mrs. Yetter.
“We really like it. We think it’s a great opportunity for students,” said Yetter. After talking to students, they agreed that the tours were very beneficial and informative for their decisions in the future.
“It showed me what IUP had to offer. I got to see the different buildings for different majors which was really nice. Overall it was a pretty great experience.”
Avery Fazekas ‘27
“Going on the tour showed me what a college campus looks like and what majors Seton Hill has to offer. We also got to tour the buildings they use every day.”
Alex Amond ‘27
“The college tour was very beneficial for me. It showed me what a college campus was like and what IUP had to offer.”
Jacob Stephenson ‘27
“The college tour at Pitt Greensburg was very beneficial for me because it showed me what a smaller school campus looked like. It made me realize I want to go to a bigger campus.”
Brady Kronenwetter ‘27
