Tables riddled with university colors and brochures line the walls of Texas High School’s Math & Science Building as hundreds of students and parents view each college. With a welcoming smile and fliers in hand, recruiters from organizations across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana engage in discussions about their programs.
On Nov. 4, 2025, Texas High hosted its annual College Night for students in the Texarkana area. As a doorway to opportunities in college, the military or trade school, this event encouraged students to be open to all possibilities. The college and career readiness counselors, Bettie Lynn Stark and Laura Fuller, worked diligently for months to plan and coordinate the event.
“We partner with the Texas Counselors Convention, and they designate a [Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers] week for East Texas [to decide] when we can have the college night,” Stark said. “We do a lot of planning [by sending] out the date in the spring, so that people can put it on their calendars or reserve it for the coming year.”
This opportunity involves not only students at Texas High School, but also the whole Texarkana community.
“We send our flyers and posters all the way out to Jefferson, New Boston, Atlanta, Queen City, Pleasant Grove, Liberty-Eylau and Arkansas High,” Stark said. “We really want to do this to benefit the whole community [of] students.”
Through the counselor’s passions, this event reminds students to begin thinking about their futures and the spread of opportunities available to them.
“We just really want to create a college-going community and culture at Texas High School, so that students know their options,” Stark said. “There’s a lot to learn, and this is a great opportunity to learn all the different opportunities available for students.“
The counselors’ efforts allowed for over 70 college and university representatives to visit for college night, providing students with a wide variety of schools to choose from.
“We [host] a lot of our nearby colleges [and] many that come year after year,” Fuller said. “We try to get a broad reach of schools that meet everybody’s interests.”
Student-volunteers guided the representatives to their designated tables, offered refreshments and offered internet access in order to increase efficiency in the setting-up process.
“A lot of the effort for the actual event is student-driven,” Stark said. “They help set up during the day, get all the tables set up and they help us take down the tables at the end of the evening.”
The students who signed up to work College Night hold a higher responsibility and expectations for themselves.
“[I volunteered] because it’s volunteer hours, [and] because if I don’t do it, who else will? ” senior Griffin White said. “It’s also really nice to speak to colleges about the application process and show people different colleges around Texas.”
This event sets expectations not only for the students getting ready for college now, but also for those who will experience this important time of their life in the future.
“I just hope that [this event] continues to be successful,” Fuller said. “ We can add more colleges as space allows, and [I hope] we have more students attend [each] year [to] see all the opportunities that are available to them.”
