A college fair Friday at Lompoc High School may have given students like senior Cynthia Vargas - students who hadn't been thinking about college because of prohibitive costs - a whole new future.

"I learned a lot, about the money, grants, everything. I didn't think I could. Now, I'm excited," Vargas said, smiling as she left the Lompoc High gymnasium where the fair was held.

The fair was for Lompoc juniors and seniors, about 600 students total, who listened to a short presentation on finding, and paying for college, before getting to meet with more than 25 scholarship and college representatives.

One of the fair organizers, LHS Career Center Technician Sheri Johnson, said giving up on a college education for lack of funds is a normal thought process for a lot of students. "Until somebody tells you that there's options, that you don't have to pay for all of it," Johnson said.

Helping out with questions about how to pay for higher education was a short presentation by the Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation. Lompoc High Principal Alfonso Garagarza also spoke to the students at the start of the fair, sharing his own college experience, "to help give the students diverse points of view about what higher education can be," Johnson said.

It worked for at least a few. Vargas' friend Diana Garcia said she had given college little thought before the fair.

"I realized I needed to be looking into colleges, getting info and contacts," Garcia said.

Once a student is interested, the question then becomes "where to go?"

For senior Berenice Aguilar the fair was an opportunity to do some research, and find which schools offered programs in photography.

"I just got interested, in like how you can capture a beautiful moment," Aguilar said.

The broad range of schools represented at the fair included local junior colleges such as Hancock College and Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), specialized technical schools such as ITT Technical and the Brooks institute, as well as traditional four-year colleges.

Aguilar found that most schools did not have photography programs, though the nearby Brooks Institute specialized in the art form.

"You have to be really dedicated if you go there," Aguilar said.

For Vargas, her hopes of becoming a midwife now have a path to the future.

"I was thinking Lawrence or SBCC."

Benjamin Durarte was among the college representatives at the fair, representing California State University, Chico.

"It's like a gold mine coming out here. We had a lot of really good questions, not just 'Do you have a sociology major?' but questions within the major," Durarte said.

The most common questions were about how to get into "CSI-type majors" like forensic anthropology, according to Durarte.

Students have become more savvy in their online research of schools Durarte said, making college recruiters' jobs more about making sure their school is on a student's radar.

"So we try to plant that seed in their head, and see if we grow into a destination for them."

Students or parents can get school and scholarship information through the school's counseling office, and career center, at 742-3017 said Johnson.