A chance to explore career opportunities and get personalized guidance will be given to a group of Disabled Student Programs and Service students from Cerritos College.

The DSP&S at Cerritos College will be taking around 15 students to the 2009 Mentoring Day for the second time on Oct. 21.

The event will be held at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, and is a joint venture of the Disability Rights Legal Center, the City of Los Angeles’ Department on Disability and the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Aurora Segura, DSP&S counselor at Cerritos College, said that the students will be able to attend the event without any fees as Loyola Law School will cover all expenses, and Cerritos College will also be providing transportation service free of charge to its students.

DSP&S students from various colleges and universities will meet at Loyola, and then matched with their respective mentors for a day of direct career counseling and a hands-on learning experience.

“The mentors that attend the event are from everywhere,” Segura explained, “and include lawyers, teachers, business owners and so on.”

“Students will spend the day visiting sites that relate to their area of interest with their mentors, for instance a student at the last year Mentoring Day was able to visit the Boeing company site in Los Angeles to learn more about the airplane industry,” she said.

Don Garriott, DSP&S specialist at Cerritos, said that the event will help students to decide their career and get valuable advice from the mentors they meet at the event.

He also commented on the enthusiastic response of the students who attended the event last year, and also hopes to see the same this time around.

“It is not difficult to have students sign up for this event. The students who went last year had a lovely experience, and some even kept contact with their mentors,” he said.

He further said, “I think it helps our students to have a real world experience and a practical approach towards their career goals.”

Students who are interested in attending the Mentoring Day needs to attend any of the three preparation workshops held at the Instructional Support Center.

The first workshop was held on Sept. 28, and the next two will be held on Oct. 15 from noon to 1 p.m. and Oct. 19 from 11 a.m. to noon.