The Power to Make a Difference

A few days ago I read this "Dear Abby" letter in the newspaper and it has stuck with me. Since I keep thinking back to it I decided it would be appropriate to share with all of you.

Dear Abby: With Halloween approaching, I would like to share a young man's act of kindness that will stay with me forever.

In October 2005, my lively and energetic 7-year-old son, Matthew, was found to have a rare brain tumor. After successfully completing treatment, he was back to his old self and happily making plans for the summer. Unfortunately, by the following summer his tumor was growing back, and there was nothing that the doctors could do.

One evening in July, we ordered a pizza to be delivered. Matthew told me that for Halloween he wanted to dress like a pizza deliveryman and asked whether he could talk to the man when he came to the house.

Because of the tumor, Matthew's speech was difficult to understand. His right side was paralyzed, and his body was swollen from steroids, so I was concerned about how the person would react. I was hesitant but agreed.

When the deliveryman arrived, I was shocked to see how young he was. I told him my son was sick but wanted to meet him because he wanted to dress like a pizza deliveryman for Halloween.
Without hesitation, the young man came in and talked to Matthew about his job. He even gave Matthew his name tag to wear as part of his costume on Halloween.

I was so impressed with him. He wasn't taken aback by my son's appearance, as so many of our adult friends had been, and he made Matthew so happy.

Matthew was in the hospital by Halloween, but he wore the man's pin on his hospital gown. It was my son's last Halloween, and I'm thankful that this young man was so caring and considerate. His name is Jeff, and his kindness should be an example to everyone.
-- Linda in Massachusetts

Dear Linda: Please accept my deepest sympathy for the loss of your son.

Your letter touched my heart. Thank you for writing to remind my readers and me what a difference a simple act of kindness can make in the life of another person.

Never doubt that you have the power to make a difference in the life of someone else. I am confident that you already are making an impact - often without even knowing it - but remember, the smallest gestures often leave the biggest impact.

Career Fair Madness

It's madness... really, it is... and with just 9 days left until the career fair I am definitely feeling the pressure to get everything pulled together.

In case you missed it, next Thursday, November 6th, WKHS will be hosting a Career Fair during the school day. Students will be released out of class to attend and will have the opportunity to walk around and talk with representatives from approximately 200 different careers who have been kind enough to volunteer their time that morning. I believe it is going to be a great day and a wonderful opportunity for all of you to meet and interact with professionals and learn more about their jobs and how they ended up in these positions. It is my sincere hope that you make the most of your time - remember, it is your future, plus, many colleges will want to know not only what you have selected for your intended major, but also why that field interests you. The information you learn at the career fair may help guide you.

Many of my students have been wonderful in helping with preparing for the career fair. Looking ahead to next week I believe that the night before the career fair as well as the morning of the career fair will be times that I need additional volunteers. If you are interested in helping, please stop by and let me know.

On Wednesday, November 5th we will be setting up the tables and materials throughout the first floor. The shifts we are looking for volunteers to help include:
- 4:00 to 5:30pm

- 5:30 to 7:00pm

- 8:00 to 9:30pm

On Thursday, November 6th we also need volunteers to assist as the career professionals arrive by escorting them to their tables and showing them the location of their hospitality room. With nearly 200 people arriving in 30 minutes it will be a rush and so we will need many willing helpers. This shift would be 6:45am to 7:45am. (And yes, I would need for you to be there and ready to go BY 6:45... so if you are not a morning person this might not be the best idea...)

We will also need students to help with cleaning up after the event by taking down the tables and signs, etc. Because this would also mean that you are missing class time my guess is that there will be lots of students willing to help on this shift. As a result, we will be opening this opportunity up first to those students who volunteer on a different shift the day before or the morning of the career fair.

Once again, if you are willing to help by participating on any of the shifts please stop by my office to sign up. I am going to put a sign-up sheet on the clipboard outside of my office so if I am busy you will still be able to sign up if you are able to help. Thanks!

Also, I have been putting in some crazy hours trying to get ready for the career fair (plus I had my family in town for the weekend) so I have been slacking a bit on the updates - I am sorry and I promise that after the career fair is over next week I will return to a more regular updating schedule. :-) Thanks for understanding!

Deadlines

Just a friendly reminder to watch your deadlines. It is really important that you stay organized and submit all application materials to colleges prior to their designated deadlines. There are several schools that have scholarship deadlines of November 1st. (This means that if you want to be considered for the maximum scholarship offering that you need to apply by November 1st.) Other schools have November 15th, December 3rd, December 15th, or even later deadlines, but because every school is different it is really important that you stay on top of this and meet the requirements with plenty of time. If you have a college application with a November 1st deadline and you have not seen me already, please be sure to come in Monday!

Don't forget, it also takes us time at WKHS to process all of the applications so you need to allow plenty of time to turn your application around and get it back to the college. Some schools (like OSU) hold firm to the requirement that their deadline doesn't just mean that the application has been received by that date, but that all supporting documentation is also in their hands by that particular date. This means that they also need to have your transcript, School Report Form, and official ACT/ SAT test scores prior to the deadline date. All the more reason to watch this closely and give us plenty of time to get your materials to the college.

If you are having trouble figuring out the deadlines, stop down to see me and we can look it up together.

Congratulations to the football team for their stunning victory over TWHS tonight! Good luck to Sam Dixius as he runs in the cross country regional championships tomorrow and to the guys soccer team as they head into district finals tomorrow.

For What It's Worth...

Tomorrow's football game has been the talk of the school and I hope that it is a great game (with a Wolves victory, of course) and that everyone is on their best and most appropriate behavior. But what I actually want to mention to you - especially the upperclassmen - is that if you are scheduled to take the ACT on Saturday morning, you really need to focus on taking that test!

Yes, I understand that this is a big game and that it is exciting to have the first ever in-district football game...

Yes, I understand that it is a Friday night...

Yes, I understand that after the game people will come back to WKHS for Senior Tackle and then celebrate the win...

But NO it is not an excuse to blow off Saturday's ACT!

So, please, think about going home after the game and unwinding quickly so that you can get a good night of sleep before the test. Get up, eat breakfast, concentrate on doing your best on the test, and then after all of that is over - celebrate the victory on Saturday.

PLAN Test

Attention Sophomores (and any interested Freshmen):

PLAN Test Date: November 3, 2008

Location: WKHS

Time: 7:30 – 11:00am (but you must arrive before 7:30 to sign in)

Cost: $10.00 (checks payable to WKHS)

The PLAN Test is the practice test for the ACT. This test is not an option for juniors so it is very important to take it during your sophomore year. You can register now in the Counseling and Career Center.

The content of the PLAN test is closely tied to that of the ACT achievement test, which is used for college entrance and placement decisions. It covers the same subjects and gives you estimated ACT scores. This test is only a practice test; therefore, it will not appear on your transcript.

The PLAN test has many benefits. It can help you get started in thinking and planning for life after high school. It will show you areas you may need extra help. The results can also be used to help focus your test preparation to improve your ACT scores. In my opinion, the MOST valuable aspect is that the PLAN test is that it includes a career component that helps identify career interests and possible career fields. The number of students who have no idea what they might want to do some day is scary and this is one way to help come up with some ideas.

It is important to note that this test is being offered during the Late Start Day. This means that you will need to arrive at school at the regularly scheduled time via your own transportation as busses will be following the late start schedule. In addition to the late start time, you will miss the first 2 classes of the late-start day.

Weekend Wrap Up

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend. I did with the slight exception being that most of my weekend was spent working on recommendation letters. In case I haven't mentioned it, I really do love the time I am able to spend talking with the students "interviewing" them for more details before I sit down and write the recommendation letters, but the process of actually writing the letters... well, not quite feeling the love. :-) I am making progress though and before I go to sleep tonight I will be more than half way through all of the letters that I need to write this year. So we can be happy about that fact at least.

It was a great long weekend for many of the WKHS athletic teams with football, mens and womens soccer, and volleyball all racking up at least one victory. Congratulations!

My highlight of the weekend came on Friday morning when I had a chance to join the group of Driven Student Leaders at their retreat/ meeting. There were 11 students (4 of which were "my students" - Alyssa Biron, CW Boyles, Clay Hedges, and Katherine Hyatt-Hawkins) and I loved being able to talk with them. (They had a pretty relaxed setting as you'll see below which made for easy discussions.) Perhaps one of the most special aspects of my visit was the welcome sign that was awaiting me. Thanks Katherine and Clay!

I hope by now that you have realized that once you are "my students" you will always be "my student" and therefore special to me. So, I am very excited and proud of two of my "former" students ran and successfully completed the Columbus Marathon today. Congratulations to Phil Bunting and Alex DiBartola! I am very proud of you!

Hope you had a great weekend and I will look forward to seeing you tomorrow... after you get to sleep in and enjoy your late start! :-)

School Day Reminders

A couple of quick reminders for you...

1st - No School Tomorrow! It is Central Ohio Teacher's Association day which means there are meetings that teachers can attend for everyone in the area so you can sleep in tomorrow.

2nd - Monday, October 20th, is a Late Start Day! You are lucky enough to be able to sleep in again which should make for quite a nice long weekend.

Hope you have a great weekend! Good luck to all of the athletes competing over the weekend - especially because so many of the teams are now in tournament play!

Good Luck

This has been a crazy week (and it's only Tuesday)!

I just wanted to wish a quick good luck to all of the Juniors (as well as the underclassmen) who will be taking the PSAT tomorrow morning! Don't forget that you need to bring your student id card, calculator, and #2 pencils with you for the test. Get a good night's sleep tonight and eat a healthy breakfast to help carry you through the test. For what it's worth, I also highly recommend that you use the restroom before the test starts as the bathroom breaks in the test are very brief. :-)

PSAT Reminder

Just a reminder - this Wednesday is the PSAT at Worthington Kilbourne HS.

Juniors, hopefully you have already signed up to take the test. If you have not registered yet, please be sure to do so tomorrow! (Bring $15.00 cash or check made payable to WKHS to the secretaries in the Counseling and Career Center.)

To the rest of the students, please remember that because I will be helping administer the PSAT I will not be available until after 5th period on Wednesday.

College Essays

Writing a college essay is the most time consuming part of the college application – it can be a frustrating, challenging process, but this is your opportunity to put your best foot forward and show the colleges what makes you special. Ideally the college admissions and scholarship officers will learn something about you and see how well you write.

When colleges review your application they can read things like your grade point and test scores, but they still want to know more about YOU – the person behind those grades, scores, and activities. It is important to remember that your essay will be one of hundreds or more-likely thousands that the admissions committee members will read. (Can you imagine reading all of those?!?) Try to interest them in what you have to say and be sure that it is written well so that it will hopefully stand out. Think of this as your opportunity to introduce yourself to the admissions and scholarship officers reading your application. Be open, honest and real.

When you have to write an essay you need to keep a few important points in mind:

1. Answer the question!

When they give you a prompt or question – be sure that your essay is answering what they are asking! These are smart people – they know when you are just trying to take a different essay and trying to make it fit for their question. Put in the time to write an essay that answers what they are asking. Also, be sure that you respond to all parts of the prompt.

2. Show me – Don’t tell me.

Great, so you told me that you are organized and honest… good qualities for their future college students, but are you demonstrating that to them with your essay? Show them what you mean – that will usually be specific, concrete stories or examples to illustrate your point.

3. Did I learn something about you?

The whole point of these essays is so that the college admissions officers will learn something new about you. (And trust me, they are learning something about you – even if that lesson is that you didn’t care enough about getting into school to pay attention to details like spelling.) So, step back and look at your essay again – did they learn something about you that they wouldn’t have known prior to reading your essay?

Let me assure you – they really do read the essays! Don’t think you can just throw something down on paper and have it be “good enough.” These are formal essays for an application to a college that will be the launching ground for the rest of your life. I know that it is intimidating, but relax and start writing – and editing – and then do some more writing and editing… One of the biggest challenges as you write your essay is controlling the tone. You want to come across as confident but not boastful, self-assured but not aggressive, accomplished but not perfect. Try to avoid claiming that everything you've ever done has been unbelievably great. Don't be afraid to admit that you are human. Colleges want real, interesting people. Because it's so hard to control the tone of an essay about yourself, you will want to ask several people – teachers, friends, your parents, or even me – to read and respond to your essay. Get a variety of reactions, and then decide how you want to revise the essay. Remember, when getting help with essay revisions it is important to go into it with the thought that you want to get revisions so it can be the best possible essay (instead of going in hoping the editors will just say – good enough.) And yes, that also means you can’t procrastinate and put it off until the last possible second. :-)

There is a ton of information and resources available online to help you in writing your essays. Here is some additional college essay writing information that I really liked and copied from another high school counseling website:

PICKING THE TOPIC

More than likely, if you look at all of the essay prompts you are going to find that they all contain the word “you.” For example, they may ask you to write about a significant experience in your life. No matter what you choose to write about, the essay should say something about who you are, what you value, how you think, and/or what you hope to accomplish. As you search for a suitable topic, be sure to think about the relationship between YOU and the experience, issue, or person.

Be creative. Don't make the mistake of adding one more routine essay to the pile. Many topics that jump to your mind may also jump to the minds of thousands of others applying to college this year. Instead, explore a new angle. Explain how you are different from everybody else, or investigate an unusual opinion.

Don't be afraid of controversy. If you have strong opinions about your topic, let them be known. It's probably a mistake to say what you think your readers want to hear just to keep from offending them. Instead, write what you believe. Admission officers often welcome strong opinions, especially if convincing facts and examples support the ideas.
Remember all the times your English teachers have said, "You write best about what interests you most?" Take their advice. Find a topic that excites you, one about which you have strong feelings. If you bring genuine interest to your writing, your readers will find it interesting as well.

COMPOSING THE ESSAY
Your English teachers have given you other good pieces of advice to remember too. Show your topic, don't just tell about it. Use vivid examples. Describe the scene or the person with sharp nouns and active verbs, using details that will invoke the senses. How did it look? feel? smell? sound? What, exactly, did the person say? Don't just tell your reader that "Uncle Henry was odd." Show us his collection of paper clips and his pet slug, Seymour. Don't just say you've been involved in "various leadership positions." Show us how you talked the school board into changing the study hall policy and how you turned the annual church youth group chicken BBQ from a poorly attended, money losing embarrassment into a standing-room-only, budget-busting, finger-licking success.

REVISING THE ESSAY
After you've finished a draft, take a break-a couple of days if you can-before you begin to revise. You need to take a fresh look at the essay. Does it reveal who you are? Does it represent your best academic ability? Does it sound like you? Be sure to examine the overall structure of the essay. Does it make a stunning point at the beginning and then fizzle, or does it steadily build in interest and intensity? Have you made clear the relationship between your ideas? Is the essay well organized?

The essay needs to read smoothly. As you revise and refine the piece, be sure that it has an attractive introduction, carefully crafted body paragraphs, and a confident conclusion. Look for clear transitions between paragraphs, and try to vary sentence length and structure. Pay careful attention to the verbs of each sentence. They should be active rather than passive (not "A decision was made," but "I decided") and should give your reader a clear picture of you in action. Although the essay needs to be personal, you shouldn't overuse the pronoun "I." Use it, of course, but don't start every sentence of the essay with it. Sometimes putting another word in the subject position of the sentence will help. (Compare: "I cut lawns every summer during high school, and I learned a lot." "My lawn care business taught me to work hard, to manage my time and my money, and to communicate well with my customers.")

TARGET: PERFECTION
If you ever write an error-free essay, this needs to be it. Grammatical and mechanical errors may ruin the entire application. Ask a knowledgeable person to help you proofread, and be sure that you type it carefully or-if the application insists-write it neatly by hand. Don't let careless last-minute flaws keep you out of the college you want to attend.

Delaware Area Career Center

When students enter 9th grade, many are excited about the different choices and opportunities available in high school. Unfortunately, the reality is that the first two years of high school really don't have all that many choices. There is a great deal of flexibility though as students reach their junior and senior years. One of those options includes the possibility of attending the Delaware Area Career Center.

Today during English classes, all sophomores listened to a presentation about the Delaware Area Career Center (DACC) and the programs that they have available for students. This is a great opportunity to earn your elective credits in an area that interests you rather than taking electives that you are selecting simply because they will fill up your schedule.

It was interesting to hear about all of the different programs that are available for students to explore. There are some unique experiences and opportunities available that can really stand out to colleges. In particular, the students that I have worked with in the past who participated in Teacher Academy and in Zoo School were stand-outs to the colleges!

Sophomores – if you are interested in participating in the field trip to the DACC, please be sure to stop into the Counseling and Career Center to pick up a permission slip. After signed by your parents please return it to Mrs. King in the Counseling and Career Center. She will also give you a teacher permission slip that must be completed before you can attend. The field trip is Friday, November 7th. All completed permission slips are due back to the Counseling and Career Center no later than Friday, October 31st.

Homecoming Week

This week is Homecoming Week! It is full of a variety of festivities and activities to celebrate and honor the tradition and experiences of high school at WKHS.

Here are some of the highlights:

- Windows are painted in the commons - they look great! Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to design and create the masterpieces.

- Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Harry Potter Day

- Wednesday is Bright Colors Day and students will be on a Homeroom Bell Schedule so that you can vote for homecoming court attendants

- Thursday is Farmer Day. Thursday night is the Bonfire at 7:30pm behind the school - Homecoming attendants for grades 9 - 11 are announced and the senior king and queen candidates are reduced to 3 each.

- Friday is Blue & Black Spirit Day. There will be an afternoon assembly in the Main Gym where the Homecoming King and Queen will be crowned. The football game is at 7:30pm.

- Saturday is the Homecoming Dance from 8:00 - 11:00pm. *Homecoming is one of the events that I volunteer to chaperone each year because I love having a chance to see all of you dressed up, looking great and having fun.

Enjoy this week's festivities!

Congratulations!

A special congratulations to the 15 students who were recongized at a ceremony on Friday morning as October Students of the Month. "My" students receiving this award included Alex Cassens, Henrietta Deny, Shannon Donovan, Will Campbell, and Trevor Aebi.

I'd also like to congratulate Vivian Chang who is a National Merit Semifinalist and Becca Alexander, Bethany Biron, and Sam Dixius who are all National Merit Commended Scholars!

Congratulations! I am proud of all of you!

Don't forget tomorrow is a late-start day - first period begins at 9:10am. Enjoy sleeping in tomorrow!

College Fairs

Mass Chaos… Let’s be honest – that is what a college fair can feel like, but it is also the opportunity for you to gain a lot of useful information from a large number of schools in a short period of time.

So, if you are going to head out to the Columbus Suburban College Fair tomorrow, Sunday, October 5th from 2:00 - 5:00 at Otterbein College, here is some information that can hopefully help you. Take a deep breath, relax, and try not to get too overwhelmed.

The good news is that college fairs give you a chance to meet with admissions representatives in person. They are all gathered together in one place in order to meet you and to answer your questions. Many schools also keep track of the number of interactions/ meetings you have with their admissions representatives during your search and application process so that they can gauge your interest level in their school. As a component of this, and also a way to expand their mailing database, a large number of the college fair booths will have cards for you to fill out with your contact information and interests. If you want to save time you can create and print out address labels that include your name, address, phone number, e-mail, high school name, year of graduation, intended major(s), and extra-curricular activities of interest. You can then just put the label on the card instead of re-writing the exact same information at table after table for each college.

Be prepared before you get to the college fair. Know that there will be far more schools than you are interested in or can even truly take in during one afternoon, so it is useful to come up with a list of colleges that you would be interested in learning more about. You can use PrepHQ to help you create that list by doing a search that looks for different criteria that seems to be a good fit for you. With that list in hand you now have a starting point for the colleges that you would like to talk to during the fair.

It can be useful to ask the same questions of each college so that you can compare them and their responses appropriately. The National Association of College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) has a handout that you can use to help with questions and I encourage you to also consider thinking about the things you most want to know about the school and can’t find in a brochure or website. Everyone is different so your questions are going to be different depending upon your interests, but if you are really interested in playing a club sport in college, you might want to ask about their club/ intramural program and the numbers of students that participate. You may want to ask what the top 2 or 3 majors are on campus as that will give you an idea of what most of the students are interested in studying. If you are undecided about what you would like to study, it would be a great idea to ask them what support and services are available to help students in exploring different majors.

Take something with you to be able to jot some notes on and also a pen or pencil. It is a crazy event with so much happening that if you don’t write it down as you go, you won’t remember much after the fact. The admissions representatives are giving you a small look of the college – what do you think following each glimpse?

When you are walking through the college fair with the list of schools that you want to talk to don’t forget to leave some time for browsing – you may realize that a school you hadn’t previously considered has just what you are looking for in a college. It can be easy for us to get caught in the cycle of only looking at specific schools because that is what “everyone” else is considering.

Ideally you will be able to avoid getting caught up in the crowds and confusion so that you don’t walk away from the college fair with a lot of brochures, but no real ideas or impressions about which colleges most interest you. At the end of the day you will likely have a bag filled with information about colleges. As the “Faring Well at College Fairs” article says, “Don’t succumb to the temptation of just piling all those brochures in some obscure corner of your bedroom. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a day or two away from the college search. Then get out all of those brochures, along with the notes you took at the fair, and read through them. You may find that some colleges aren’t as interesting as you first thought. Others only look better the more you research them.”

Good luck and happy college searching… I can’t wait to hear about the schools that spark your interest!

(By the way - in addition to the Columbus Suburban College Fair on Sunday afternoon there is a Learning Disabilities College Fair at Gahanna Lincoln High School on Monday evening from 6-8pm and a Columbus Kiwanis College Fair at Vets Memorial on Tuesday night from 6-8pm.

PTO Open House

Just a reminder that tomorrow night (Thursday, October 2nd) is the PTO Open House "Meet the Teacher" night. This is the night that was rescheduled when the first night had to be postponed due to the power outages. Don't forget to give your schedules to your parents so that they can follow your schedule tomorrow night.

The evening event runs from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Each class will be 10 minutes in length and yes, your parents will have the same 5 minute passing time that you have during the day.

Here is the schedule for the evening:
1st period - 7:00 - 7:10
2nd period - 7:15 - 7:25
3rd period - 7:30 - 7:40
4th period - 7:45 - 7:55
5th period - 8:00 - 8:10
6th period - 8:15 - 8:25
7th period - 8:30 - 8:40
8th period - 8:45 - 8:55

It's hard to believe that it is already October and we are halfway through the first 9 weeks. Interims were due today - hopefully you are in good shape, but don't forget that if you have been slacking it is time to kick it in gear! :-)