La Feria de Educación, a statewide fair promoting higher education to Hispanic students, will be hosted at Fresno State for the first time Saturday.

The community fair, which is held on several California State University campuses, aims to get parents and K-12 students thinking about future career opportunities.

“We really want to encourage students to start thinking early, and get parents to understand that preparing for college doesn’t happen when the student is in high school,” said Frances Peña, chair of planning committee. “It happens as early as kindergarten.”

The CSU in collaboration with Spanish-language television network Univision, have held similar education fairs at CSU Dominguez Hills and Sacramento State which have drawn tens of thousands of Spanish speaking students and their families to learn about the typical education journey with a focus on preparing for college, said the CSU.

The Fresno State’s Feria de Educación is targeted as far north as Merced and Modesto and to the south in Bakersfield.

“Often times because the Spanish-speaking parents don’t always get the information, it is important for us to reach out and make an effort to provide opportunities for the students,” Peña said. “We have a very large Hispanic population in the Central Valley and this is a great opportunity for us to reach many folks.”

School districts, like Parlier and other organizations will be providing bussing for rural communities for the convenience of students and parents.

“We have so many rural communities that we didn’t want the fact parents live far to be a deterrent for them not to come,” Peña said.

Fresno State is expecting about 5,000 parents and students to attend from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The students will be given campus tours, and information about community colleges, CSUs and University of California campuses. Workshops on admissions, financial aid, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, and what to expect the first year of college will also be available.

More than 100 community groups such as school districts, education nonprofits, colleges and universities will be providing resources.

The Mexican Consulate has also donated books children can take home. During the fair, there will be a reading garden to promote literacy within the family. Fresno State President Dr. Joseph Castro and his wife Mary will be among the few to be reading to the children.

There will also be a visualization area where students can dress up as their career choice, take a picture and visualize themselves in various careers.

“We want them to begin thinking about careers in the future and the best way to do that is for them to think of themselves in those careers,” Peña said.