BUILD Oakland students touring the UC-Davis campus

2008 Local College Trip

An often pivotal event in a BUILD student’s experience is their very first college tour. The occasion to see a real college campus and be introduced to the culture of higher education is an extremely inspiring opportunity. This year, BUILD Oakland took a record number 67 students on an overnight adventure to three different local college campuses. These schools included the University of the Pacific, Sacramento State University, and UC Davis.

BUILD’s goal for the college tours is to introduce the students to a wide array of college/university experiences. The Academic Program Managers make every effort to ensure the students get a good feel for schools in the Cal State and UC systems as well as a private school, as each offers a unique learning and social environment that may address the exceptional and wonderful personalities of our young entrepreneurs.


The weekend started at the University of the Pacific where BUILD students walked around the smaller campus, ate lunch at the school’s dining facilities and received an admissions presentation. The next stop was Sacramento, where the Admissions office led BUILD students on a guided tour of the campus and then a Sacramento State student group fielded some important college culture questions from our students. The final stop was UC Davis where the Black Campus Ministries set up both a guided tour by current students as well as a phenomenal student panel that included a recent graduate from McClymonds High School in Oakland, CA.

This experience as a whole had an overwhelmingly positive reception by the BUILD students. The excitement will last through the Spring when our students will explore the San Diego area colleges and universities over Spring Break, for a total of five days, in hopes of further inciting our students’ passion to pursue higher education.