A "Black Weekend"

The day after Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday” and last year I heard the entire weekend being called a “Black Weekend” because high school seniors are forced by parents to spend all day working on college applications and get them completed. I keep wondering how many of you were really locked in your rooms stressed out about trying to finish your college applications. With December 1st being tomorrow, many of you may have been ahead of the game and not procrastinating to try to get everything done over the holiday weekend. Hopefully you finished so you could enjoy the break and that it was not a black weekend with lots of application work.

Remember, if you are applying to schools with a December 15th, December 31st, or January 1st deadline and have not already turned in a transcript release form you need to do this tomorrow! (Yes, it is OK, even though you have not completed your applications to turn in your transcript release form because we need time to process all of the applications and get everything submitted before the winter break.)

So, how was the rest of your Thanksgiving? I hope it was relaxing and enjoyable! I had a great time with my niece and nephew. There are so many things I am thankful for each day and Thanksgiving provided plenty of time to reflect on them... included in my list was all of you. Each student that I have the opportunity to work with and to walk alongside during your journey through high school is a blessing to me. I enjoy watching as you learn, grow, change, and mature during high school. I am also so thankful for all of you who make me laugh and bring joy to my day. And I am grateful for the "just because" visits when you drop by just to say hi. So, while it is a few days delayed, please know that I am thankful for you. I'm looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow and hearing about your Thanksgiving breaks!

Sad But True

I hate to shop. (Yes, it is true.) I am just not a fan of it at all! There is nothing I like about trying to go into a store with lots of other people looking at all the same items and find the "perfect" gift for someone who means the world to me. Is it really possible to find a perfect gift? I tend to find it frustrating and overwhelming. So, that is why today of all days - "Black Friday" - it is sad, but true to know that I was out shopping at 5am. My sister and my mom are the exact opposite of me when it comes to shopping - they love it and live for it and usually that works really well for me because they can help me to find the gifts that I need for people and they find 99.9% of my clothes too. For the second year in a row though they decided that if I wanted their help shopping I needed to get up and go with them. (Ahhhh!!!) Let's be honest, if it wasn't for their help no one in my entire family would ever receive anything from me so I owe them a lot of gratitude for helping me. Unfortunately, after they left I unloaded the car and looked at what we had accomplished and I am no where near finished which makes me very nervous...

I hope that if you braved the crowds this morning that you were able to get all of your holiday shopping done and that you were successful in finding the "perfect" gifts.

The best news of all, it is only Friday so we still have the whole weekend left before returning to school! :-) Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you were able to eat great food with family or friends who mean the most to you.

I had a very nice day. My sister and her husband and kids are in town so we all headed to meet my mom at my grandmother's house this morning and we watched the parade on and off while playing then we had lunch and went to the nursing home to visit my grandfather. A great day with people I love.

While I was thinking about all of the things that I am grateful for this year I wanted to share with you how thankful I am that *you* are in my life and that I have the honor of working with you. I am very blessed to have a job that I love and to be able to work with people such as you on a daily basis.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Impact Award

Tonight at the Worthington Board of Education meeting the WKHS Career Fair planning committee that I chaired was honored with an Impact Award. This award was designed "to acknowledge staff members who exemplify excellence, connect people, knowledge and ideas, provide inspiration, recognize opportunity and celebrate success." Obviously, it was an quite an honor to receive this award!

School Board President (and Career Fair committee member), Jennifer Best, spoke about the career fair event and shared a few highlights and then asked me to speak about why we came up with the concept of holding a career fair. (Which, by the way, is because the student and parent surveys conducted at the end of the last two years have both indicated a need for increased career information - so never doubt that the surveys you complete are useful to us!)

I was excited that we received this recognition, but mostly because it gave the opportunity for everyone to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the committee members. I feel like I have been the lucky one because I was able to work with such an incredible group of people who were dedicated to making the career fair a success. Then, I was also the one who received a lot of the acknowledgement and thanks and it was appropriate that the recognition be shared among the entire group.

So, now that I finally have a picture of the committee members, I would like to publicly thank the WKHS 2008 Career Fair Planning Committee: Ken Nally (Asst. Principal), Tim Davis (Student), Mike Riffee (Teacher, Parent, and Coach), Jennifer Best (Parent), Sue Bobson (Parent), Sachi Oshima (Student), Me - I think you know me by now, and Juli Bogatay (Parent). Unfortunately there was one committee member who was unable to attend the meeting tonight - Tom Souder (Dean of Students and Coach).

Thank you all for making the career fair such an incredible event!

Volunteer - Do Something

In the summer of 2008, Do Something, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering teens to participate in community service, surveyed admissions officers of top colleges and universities in the United States. The purpose of the Community Service and College Admissions Survey is to understand the importance of community service in the college admissions process. As you can probably guess, the reality is that the admissions officers like to see community service. Here is what they wrote about the top five findings found in the survey.

Passion and Consistency Valued Most
When asked, “Which would you value more: four years volunteering at a local community center or one month helping orphans in Somalia?” 100% surveyed chose four years at a community shelter. This response indicates passion and consistency hold much higher value than a smaller, even more intensive program. This theme is reiterated in the entire study.

Time Spent Worth More than Money Raised
When asked, “Which would you value more: raising $100,000 for the homeless or spending a summer working at a homeless shelter?” 68% surveyed valued time spent over money raised. While raising such funds is admirable and impressive, time spent indicates the universality of volunteerism. Anyone can find a homeless shelter where they can volunteer, but not everyone has the ability to ask for money. Admissions officers “get it.” They are looking for evidence of actual service, not the ability to connect with wealthy people.

Community Service Ranks Fourth Amongst Valued Criteria
When asked to rank GPA, SATs, legacy, reference letters, extra curricular activities, and community service, 37.5% surveyed ranked community service fourth. While GPA and SATs are obviously the most valued criteria, community service ranks higher than then legacy and reference letters. Quite simply, hard academic numbers remain the most standard and significant factors of getting into a top college, but community services are noted and valued experiences.

Organizational Affiliations Don’t Matter
When asked, “Does being a member of a service organization like the Boy Scouts have more or less weight than an unaffiliated student volunteering?” 84% surveyed gave no weight to such affiliations. One admissions officer noted, "Service is service, that’s always a good thing."

Tell Your Story Well
When asked to list the three words admissions officers most like to see when students describe their community service, the most recurring words were “commitment,” “passionate,” and “dedication.” When asked to list the three words admissions officers least like to see, most recurring were “required,” “mandatory,” and “tedious.” Therefore, when describing community service, it should include positive and encouraging descriptors, rather than words of obligation.

Merit Based vs Need Based Aid

Paying for College is expensive! There is no question that higher education costs add up quickly and it can be confusing to try to figure out what all of the different terms related to financial aid really mean - especially when the economy is struggling. This is just a brief overview to give you an idea of what you might see/ hear when you are looking at your options.

There are two broad categories of financial aid – Merit Based aid and Need Based aid.

Merit Based aid is what you think of when you think “Scholarships.” These are usually awarded to students based on academic achievements, leadership, athletics, special talents such as art or music, volunteerism, or other personal qualities that set you apart. These scholarships do not consider financial need. A significant portion of all merit-based aid comes directly from the college/ university. Some schools may require additional scholarship applications, essays, interviews, and many colleges will have earlier deadlines to be considered for their scholarships. It can be helpful to know that a lot of times the smaller, private colleges will have more money available for scholarships in order to help make attending their school competitive with the lower costs of the public colleges. Please also remember that there are scholarship offerings listed in PrepHQ. It is important to keep an eye out for unique scholarships that might apply to your personal situation. Last year I had a student who was able to qualify for an Italian heritage scholarship. Perhaps one of your grandparents won a purple heart or maybe you have time to write an essay for one of the other scholarship competitions… no matter what the situation, if you find a scholarship that you meet the criteria for go ahead and apply – you might be pleasantly surprised at the result and if you don’t, the answer is definitely a “no.”

Need Based aid is what you will sometimes hear people refer to as “Financial Aid” even though both Merit Based and Need Based aid technically fall under that one category. There are a variety of different Need Based aid programs. Grants are considered gift assistance – they give you money and you do not have to pay it back. Loans which can come from a wide variety of sources – the federal government, the college, and private banks is money that you are required to pay back. Work Study programs are on campus job opportunities that the government helps find that allows you to earn money for college through working on campus. The big difference between Merit Based and Need Based aid is that Need Based aid is that the type and amount of Need Based aid you will receive depends upon the amount of financial need you have.

And, yes, just to add to the confusion – there are some scholarships that will consider financial need as a criterion. They are still awarding the scholarship based upon some specific aspect of who you are it is just allowing them to narrow down the potential applicant pool.

One last important reminder - NEVER pay to be considered for a scholarship! That is a scam. Don't waste your money!

If you have any questions you can always call the financial aid offices of the schools where you are applying as they are true experts in the field. I am also happy to try to help in any way that I can.

A Few Reminders

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to remind you that tomorrow, Wednesday, November 19th, is a homeroom schedule day.

Seniors will have a senior class meeting in the auditorium.

Also, just as a reminder to the seniors, you have until Friday, December 5th to order your caps and gowns without late fees. You hopefully have already taken care of this, but late registration for the December SAT is tomorrow and the ACT is registration deadline is also this week so if you need to retake either of those tests your last chance to sign up to do that is this week.

Deadlines Rapidly Approaching!

Just a quick reminder about the upcoming deadlines related to your college applications...

- Any student applying to OSU (or an OSU branch) that wants to be considered for scholarships MUST apply before December 1st! That means that ALL of your materials (transcript, college prep form, test scores, and application including the essay) are in OSU's hands by December 1st. If you are in the group of students who still plan to hit this December 1st date, then please verify that you have turned in your transcript release form with the college prep form that I need to complete for you and $3.00 to Mrs. Hoyt. You are told to provide at least 10 days to make sure that we get everything processed on time. (10 days was last week... so if you have not yet turned in your form be certain that you have done so NO LATER than this Wednesday!)

- If you are looking at December 15th, December 31st, or January 1st deadline, your transcript release form MUST be submitted to Mrs. Hoyt (with all supplemental materials required) no later than Monday, December 1st! This is because those deadlines create a massive back up in the system because there will be so many applicants and we need the time to process them all and get them mailed before winter break begins.

- Transcript release forms are available on the center shelves area in the middle of the Counseling and Career Center or you can download them off of the "Shared Files" area on PrepHQ.

- By now I *SHOULD* know about any and all students who need recommendation letters for college applications, but if you have realized that your college application needs a recommendation letter, then please do NOT delay and come and see me immediately so that we can figure out a plan to get your letter written on time to meet your deadlines.

- Stop by my office if you have any questions, but please remember that deadlines are real and they are approaching quickly.

4 Year Colleges... Really?

How long will it take you to make it through college? Most people will quickly think to themselves "4 years" because most WKHS students are looking at 4-year colleges.

Unfortunately, that is not always the reality. While a college is a 4-year school, for many students it is not always realistic that their students will, in fact, graduate in 4-years. You may wonder why this matters now, but it is very important for you to look at the 4-year graduation rates when you are considering colleges for your future because the longer it takes you to graduate from high school, the more you will be taking on in costs for college as well as the longer it will take you to graduate and get out into the working world or to move on to grad school.

You can usually find the 4-year graduation rates on college websites, but it isn't always easily accessible. This is a link to a US Department of Education website called College Navigator where you can search for schools and then by looking at the retention/ graduation rate area you will be able to see the statistics for each school in an easily accessible way.

Each school's 4-year graduation rates should not be your sole factor in making a decision, but it is another piece of the puzzle to help you. You should use the information to help you ask more questions about why their graduation rates are so low. Is it because it is too difficult to schedule classes when you need, is it because the costs are too expensive, is it because students change majors too many times so they end up with a lot of classes that do not help them toward their major, etc.

Happy Searching as you look for the school that is the best fit for you and your future.

Be Patient

Let me start off by acknowledging that I am *NOT* the most patient person on the planet!

I know that it can be frustrating waiting for something to happen. Waiting to hear news. Waiting for the next phase of your life. Waiting... waiting... and still more waiting.

But the reality is you need to be patient.

Right now the colleges are completely overwhelmed and back-logged with applications that they have been receiving. For example, we received a notice from Miami today saying that they are at least two weeks behind on getting everything processed and updated in the computer. They were sending that notice to us because they are also automatically generating letters that they are sending home to students to remind you that you need to send your transcript and test scores and a recommendation letter. People tend to panic when they see that notice and want to send the materials again. They do not want that happening as that will simply back up their system even more. Miami is NOT the only one in this situation - this is a very common occurance at this time of year, but it does create a lot of panic in homes of seniors across the country.

Try to be patient. If you get one of these letters (from any college) take a moment and double check - did you send your transcript? Was it mailed? (You can check that by logging into PrepHQ and looking at the date that your transcript request was submitted to WKHS and the date we mailed it.) If it is still in the office, are we possibly missing some necessary item? For example, have your teachers written their recommendation letters? If it was mailed and it is within a 2-3 week timeframe of when your transcript was mailed, then take a deep breath and relax knowing that it is likely just because their system is backed up. Continue double checking on the college website (most will give you access to see your application status) and see if they have everything. If you are nearing the end of the 3rd week and they still don't have all of your items you can give them a call to double check. Chances are they just haven't made it there yet, but there are times where things get lost in the mail or filed in the wrong area. If items need to be sent again then we will work on taking care of that, but first make sure that they really are missing it.

As always, swing by my office to see me if you have any questions.

November Students of Month

Last Friday 17 WKHS students were honored as November's Students of the Month! Students can only earn this recognition once during their high school career.

A special congratulations to "my" students who were honored as Students of the Month!

(Left to Right: Tim Davis, Krystin Burgess, Becca Amato, Tori Cardiel, and Zach Ellifritz.)

I am proud of you! Thank you for representing the best of Worthington Kilbourne High School.

Delaware Area Career Center

On Friday of last week the counselors had the opportunity to take all students interested in learning more about the Delaware Area Career Center up to the north and south campuses for a field trip/ visit. I picked to attend the north campus because a few of my other students are in programs up there and I wanted to try to see them. (I didn't realize that they don't all have to attend on the field trip days so I missed out on seeing some...)

I was excited though to be able to visit the construction lab and see Ben Adamescu and the success that he is having and the impressive accomplishments he has achieved while there. Ben took us out to see the fire training building that they helped to build and also the bobcat machine that they are trained to use... they teach the kids how to lift it "right" by filling the shovel full of water and then the kids work to raise it without getting water all over themselves. It was interesting.

(Above Ben shows another one of my students, Jennifer Anthony, and another WKHS student how to hammer nails successfully.)

After finishing my time in the construction lab I went to the Automotive Technology lab and was able to catch up with and see Tim Curry. It was great to see the projects, cars, and equipment that he has been working with at the DACC. And, of course, I enjoyed being able to talk to him and hearing about his internship that he has been doing this year!

(Tim shows students some of their specialized equipment.)

I am so incredibly proud of both Ben, Tim, and the rest of my students that are doing so well at the career center! (Their teachers all bragged about them too so it isn't just that I am biased about how impressive my students are in their accomplishments.) And, I was also so impressed to watch them both as they taught the student visitors. :-)

If you have ever given any consideration to attending the Delaware Area Career Center and have questions, please stop in and see me. You should also try to go up to the DACC with your parents for the Open House visits this Thursday (November 13th) evening.

We Survived!

It was a crazy week last week, but we survived it!

As expected, last week was exhausting, but also exciting. Thank you to everyone for bearing with me while I took a break from blogging as I was burning the candle at both ends trying to get ready for the career fair. I was very pleased with the career fair and will probably spend a few days of updates talking about it, but I want to get through all of the surveys to see what everyone else thought about it first.

There were a lot of great activities last week and I am looking forward to sharing pictures and summaries of them in the days ahead, but first, for today I want to share with you what I found in my office on Friday morning when I came to work.

Tuesday was my birthday and Thursday was the career fair which was "my project" and so three of my students plotted with Ms. Schwartz's help to celebrate both events by decorating my office.

As you can see, my office was covered with balloons, signs, streamers, candy, and even brownies. It was a very sweet and pleasant surprise.

Thanks Katherine, Clay, Shannon, and Ms. Schwartz! I appreciate it!

I guess great minds think alike because my mom sent flowers and my sister sent food to celebrate the career fair being done too. Very sweet.

Don't Forget

A few reminders...

- Don't forget that tomorrow is a Late Start Day! (Classes begin at 9:10am)

- Don't forget that tomorrow is the PLAN test! Sophomores and any Freshman signed up to take the test need to arrive at WKHS at 7:15am and will finish testing around 11:30am. To the rest of the students - I will be helping to administer the PLAN test along with the rest of the counselors so know that I won't be around until later in the day.

- Don't forget that Tuesday we don't have school because it is election day (and my birthday!)

- Don't forget that Thursday is the Career Fair... and I still need volunteers to help set up on Wednesday night and to help with greeting our professionals as they arrive bright and early on Thursday morning.

- Don't forget that Friday is the field trip to the Delaware Area Career Center.

- Hopefully you all remembered to set your clocks back, but if not, I guess this is another reminder. :-)

See you tomorrow!

Already November...

It doesn't seem possible that it is already November.

My niece and nephew had a great halloween in Kentucky and told me today that they have lots of candy in their belly... too cute! Carly was a "Glamour Girl" and Cole was "Thomas the Train."

They tried on their costumes while visiting. Above is Carly looking beautiful and below is Cole as Thomas the Train... he is showing off that the costume includes a built in pocket for his candy.

As I mentioned last weekend they came to town to visit and we had fun together. In addition to trying on their costumes - here are a couple of other pictures from our times together.

(Carly's baby doll had on a matching dress and Cole was helping his daddy fix my door.)

Switching gears... Today the guys soccer team competed in Regional Finals - unfortunately they ended up losing 1-0. I know it wasn't the way you wanted things to end, but I'm still proud of you for a great season!