CUSD students earn college credit through Clovis Community College's 'Summer at S.E.A.' course

CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- Clovis Unified soon-to-be juniors and seniors are spending their summer at S.E.A. -- the STEM Exploration Academy.

Clovis Community College offers the five-week course to prepare high school students for college and give them hands-on experience.

Students were chopping down and weighing fresh fruit to the perfect size for their biology course at Clovis Community College.

"We're trying to find out how much DNA is in what," Buchanan High School student Jenna Kurisu said.

Each group devised a hypothesis before stripping the DNA from the fruit and putting it in test tubes to find out.

Once they had their findings, the group worked together to fill out their worksheet.

Kurisu says she signed up because her sister took the class and said it was fun.

Student Success Coach Coordinator Gabriela Ramirez says the course is geared toward students interested in STEM careers: science, technology, engineering and math.

"Work with biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, and physics faculty, so those are the labs that we're going to go into, so each week is something new or something different," Ramirez said.

Past students who are still in high school or preparing to enter college say it was a great course.

"A lot of stuff I was into already, so it was fun to apply that knowledge," Mathew Aldape said.

During the summer course, students hear from guest speakers and learn more about the resources on campus.

Students like Kurisu say she's grateful this is offered.

"It's really good introducing college because I don't feel like school really prepares you enough for it," Kurisu said.

The five-week Summer at S.E.A. course wraps up next week, and each of the students will leave with three college units under their belt.

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