Not every college student has a particular vision of or inkling toward a specific major or career when they begin, but others do. Those of you who have: do you recall when you were first inspired toward your life calling? Perhaps you were drawn toward literature because of being read to every night as a child. Perhaps there was a nature documentary, or an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy, that fascinated you and encouraged a trip to the nonfiction section of your local library, and it’s been bi-monthly ever since.

EPIC (Engineering Possibilities in College) is an annual summer program at Cal Poly’s campus that aims at doing just that—one of the prime targets is students who may not have considered a career in engineering. Seventh- through 12th-graders take a variety of labs and activities in the wide spectrum of engineering branches, such as civil, industrial, materials, computers, aerospace, etc. This year, in addition to the length of the program being extended to five days from a much smaller program for those entering middle school (high schoolers get six), high school campers now have residential housing available to them during the program. The lineup of labs even includes those by Cisco, JPL, Raytheon, and iFixit this year. Who knows? Maybe one of these students will be working with you one day. Maybe one will even be a classmate!

By the way, speaking of the future enrolled, be prepared to see new faces in big groups over the next few weeks. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays until Aug. 9, new Cal Poly students and their families will be found downtown on tours and at restaurants and more, as part of their summer orientation, called Soar. I can’t really promise you’ll be able to identify them immediately, but who knows—a mob of Cal Poly T-shirts taking photographs might be reasonably noticeable. I only bring this up because for those of you staying here over the summer, it might be nice to say hi and make them feel welcome. If any of these new students are reading this right now, then allow me to say hi, and encourage you to check back here when you’re started for some fun tips and events to help make your experience in SLO as fun as possible. Welcome!

Intern Chris White-Sanborn considered eating downtown once, but he remembered that that’s where the New Times office is and figured his boss probably wouldn’t like being inside of his stomach. Send seltzer to [email protected].