The 25th annual Kinder Caminata event will be held this Friday, April 11. First taking place at Fullerton College in 1995, Kinder Caminata has entertained kindergarten-age children across six elementary school districts with career exploration activities.
According to Cadena Cultural Center the theme has always been Cesar Chavez’s Motto “Si, se puede!” to expand on educational opportunities ideals at young ages and their families. Each spring, colleges welcome the opportunity to share higher learning to young scholars as faculty and students greet them when they arrive.
“I want the kindergarteners to enjoy their visit. Each group will have a different experience as they will visit different activity stations and be exposed to a number of faculty, staff and students,” said Gilberto Valencia, Kinder Caminata, coordinator in an email to The Hornet.
Valencia says that ever since Campus Leadership asked the Cadena Cultural Center to host the event, it’s been one of many events they’ve put together to promote a sense of community and diversity among students of all ages alike. This year will be Valencia’s third year running the event.
For an event like this, it takes months of planning to organize everything accordingly. The Cadena Cultural center starts reaching out to school districts at the beginning of September and begins recruiting volunteers at the start of the spring semester in February.
Stations for each classroom can vary year to year based on staff and volunteer availability but overall, the aim is to get each visiting classroom a chance to try four activities for 15 minutes. Some of the activities include “Learning about Money” with the business department, a mini-obstacle course with the Research center and reading time in the library.
Different colleges in Orange County also host the same sort of event, such as Cypress College and Santa Ana College. However, elementary students and their parents get to explore different types of activity stations because of the different programs each school has to offer. Santa Ana has nursing and firefighting career stations, and Cypress puts on a show in their planetarium to teach kids about outer space as well as a demonstration on how a car works in their automotive department. For Fullerton College, their drone program hosts a STEM interactive activity for the kids to get them excited for technology science.
One of its newest activities takes place in the newly accustomed Math, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Center hosted by the director Carlos Aguirre where kids can build chemical structures using toothpicks and jellybeans. It will be shown digitally using chemistry software on computers.
According to Valencia, approximately 1,500 kindergarteners from the Centralia, Placentia-Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Fullerton, La Habra and Magnolia Elementary School Districts and the Fullerton College Child Development and Educational Studies (CDES) lab school will be in attendance.
Ultimately, Valencia says that he wants kids, “to be exposed to the amazing faculty, staff, and students that make up Fullerton College and what makes it a great place for education.”
