Science teacher April White took her fourth and fifth period AP Chemistry students on a field trip to Loyola Marymount University (LMU) on Friday, Feb. 23.

They were welcomed by Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies Sandra Luca, who is in charge of recruitment, the science department and university oversight.

Ms. White, along with four parent chaperones and 46 AP Chemistry students, received a tour of the science department, specifically the new science buildings.

“I found it very fun and enlightening in regards to the sciency aspects of LMU,” said junior Cameron Nelsen. “I also got a pretty good glimpse at what a science-oriented education would mean for me if I went to LMU and probably other really good schools that put some emphasis on science.”

After the tour, students were able to sit in on a general chemistry lecture with college freshman, which covered the content in the AP Chemistry course.

“It was wonderful for the students to be able to see what a college lecture looks like and be able to compare that to their high school AP Chemistry class,” said Ms. White.

Students received personalized tours from Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry Jeremy McCallum, along with some of his undergraduate students. The undergraduate students led lab tours, showed the progression of general chemistry and how students are able to move to more advanced laboratories through their undergraduate education. Students were led through the instrumentation labs at LMU and asked the undergraduate students questions regarding the college experience.

“What I like about LMU is that it demonstrates what a smaller campus looks like for extreme personalized education versus UCLA, which would be an example of a larger campus,” said Ms. White.

“I hope that the students started thinking a little bit about college,” she said. “One of the big things that I always ask students to consider when they’re looking at colleges is what kind of college in terms of size are they looking for… are they looking for a smaller, more personalized experience or are they looking for a much larger campus with much larger classes?”