Review and Print Preview

Today I had a large number of students ask me to double check their applications and make sure everything looked OK before they submitted them to their respective colleges.  I am more than happy to help provide another set of eyes, but please remember that I will not necessarily know if you have your parent's college information right or if that is really your social security number.  For those details, you need to make sure you have someone (your parents or an older sibling) take a look with you.

As we were reviewing the applications that were on Common App I was surprised by how many of my students had not yet checked their application with Print Preview.  There are lots of places on Common App that remind you to double check how your application will actually show up to the colleges when they download it off the Common App website.  You need to look at it and make sure that none of your written information is being cut off.  This includes the short-answer essay and the other areas such as descriptions of your involvement in activities and course names and credits for each of your senior year classes.

In case you don't believe me, this article also talks about the importance of using print preview so I promise you it really is worth the time to double check it before you submit.

Transcript Release Deadline Reminder

I wanted to remind everyone that if you are in the process of applying to college you need to make sure you come in and fill out a transcript release card.  This process must be completed for EVERY college where you are applying.

If you are applying to schools utilizing the Common Application, your transcript will be submitted electronically.  You will need to report me as your school counselor on the School Forms page so that I am assigned the transcript data responsibility and given access to submit them on your behalf.  If you are unsure how to do this, bring your common app username and password to school with you after you have completed the majority of your application and we will fill out the assignment component together.

If you are applying to schools that don't use the Common Application, you need to send your transcript in on your own.  After you request your transcript you will come back to see Mrs. Hoyt in 3 days with $1.00 for each transcript you have requested.  You will then receive a copy of your transcript to mail directly to the college.  The transcript will be in a sealed envelope with a stamp across the back which is what tells the college that it is an official transcript.  Do not open this envelope or else the transcript is no longer official and you will need to request a new transcript and pay for it again - a waste of your time and money.  Once you have picked up your transcript, add the mailing address, postage and send it to the college to complete your application.

Some students have asked me if you have to be done with your applications to request your transcript and the short answer is no, but you should be close.  The one time that it doesn't matter if you are close or not is when we get close to winter break (which is rapidly approaching).  Remember, we are not at school over Christmas either, so if you are applying to colleges with a December 31st or January 1st deadline, you need to make sure that you have requested your transcript no later than December 17th to have to mail in before the college application deadline.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you very soon to fill out your transcript release card!  :-)

A Weekend of Essays?

Did you have a nice weekend?  I hope that you enjoyed the holiday and all of the fun that comes with it, but I know that for many seniors, this weekend was probably filled with writing essays.  For students working on college applications this weekend is often referred to in the college world as the "Black Weekend" where parents are forcing their sons and daughters to complete their college applications.  If you were among those who spent lots of time writing out essays, I hope you were productive!  It is important to have people look over your essays again and make sure that they are saying what you are hoping to convey with a tone that puts you in the best possible light.

I had listed this article in my last list of articles that I thought might be helpful for you and I have been printing it out for a lot of students for the last few weeks so I wanted to post it up here again on it's own.

The Common App Essays: Breaking Down the Questions

As you review your essays, please be sure to look at your final piece with a critical eye to see if it is a good "college essay."  This can be frustrating because a lot of times students will have beautifully written essays that don't make good college essays because the reader won't learn anything about you from the essay.  Please, help your application by introducing yourself fully and completely to the admissions committee.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow.  Stop by and let me know about your Thanksgiving break!

Thanksgiving Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you and your family are enjoying a wonderful holiday.  I am so blessed and today as I pause to give thanks I wanted to share some of my Thanksgiving thankfulness thoughts with all of you.

I am thankful for:
- My Family!  We are so lucky to be gathered together this holiday weekend.  I am grateful for the joy they bring to my life.  They love me unconditionally and are always there for me.  Of course, in particular I am so grateful for my 3 favorite turkeys - my niece Carly and my nephews Colton and Brady.  They always make me smile and I love their enthusiasm.
- My mom's cooking.  Technically, I suppose this should still be under my family, but I was thinking about all the ways that my mom shows her love for us and her cooking is one example.  We are so spoiled - she takes care of the entire holiday meal each year and I love that we have the same Thanksgiving meal each year.
-  My job.  I am so lucky to have a job that is rewarding, fulfilling, and that never gets boring.  No two days are alike and it is always exciting to see what will happen with each new day.
-  My students.  Let's be honest, the reason I love my job is because I have the best students!  I am so fortunate to be a part of your lives.  The fact that you choose to talk to me during difficult days and include me in your celebration on happy days means far more than you can imagine.  I consider it an honor to work with you and I learn so much from you.
-  The families of my students.  Not only do students welcome me into their lives, but many families do so as well.  The words of encouragement and appreciation mean a great deal.
- My friends.  In some ways I should include my friends as part of my family.  I have many friends, but even more importantly are the small group that make up my "true friends" - those people who I can count on no matter what.  They bring such joy to my life.
-  My coworkers.  I am lucky to work with people who I consider friends.  They listen, support, encourage and believe in me.  I trust them without question and I am a better person and a better counselor because of them.
-  My health.  This year in particular as I have witnessed one of my students struggle through his incredibly courageous battle with cancer I am aware of just how fortunate I am to be blessed with good health.
-  Since I mentioned Grayson in the last item, I have to say that I am thankful that he is (or soon will be) cancer free.  Hopefully he will soon get the wonderful news that his cancer is gone and so I am grateful that he will have beat cancer.  And if he has to continue on in the fight, then I am grateful to know that all of the WKHS students and staff will continue to stand behind him until he is cancer free.  For now though, I am choosing to believe that he has already won the battle and being thankful that his health is returning!  :-)
-  My former students.  There is no way that I can express how much it means to me when former students keep in touch.  E-mails, calls, text messages, or visits when they are home - each are priceless gifts to my heart.  I am so thankful that these students choose to stay in touch even though there is nothing that I can do for them any more.
-  Generosity and compassion in action.  It is so inspiring to see acts of kindness, generosity and compassion being demonstrated in big or small ways.  I love seeing it directed toward those most in need and also appreciate the times when it has been shown to me.
-  Stability.  I am incredibly fortunate to live a stable life.  I have a solid foundation of faith, food on my table, a roof over my head and a warm bed to sleep in each night.  There are so many people in our world who pray for the things I tend to take for granted.
-  Freedom.  I am so blessed to live in this country and am thankful for all the men and women who have sacrificed so much to maintain our freedom.

Thank you for bearing with me through my lengthy list.  Quite honestly, if I gave you more specifics this list would continue on and on because I am so blessed.  I hope that today you will find time to reflect on what you are grateful for this Thanksgiving.  And, if your life is feeling pretty rough and you don't have much to be thankful for, please know that you are in my prayers and that I hope things will improve.

Stressed

How are your stress levels?

Stress comes from a range of events and life experiences. When positive things happen such as getting a new job, dating someone new, or graduating from high school, stress levels increase. And, obviously, stress levels are higher when negative things take place like failing a test, fighting with family or friends, or having a lot to do in a limited amount of time. Quite simply, the reality is that stress is a part of life and it cannot be escaped, but it is important to learn healthy strategies for dealing with stress.

Hopefully having 5 days off school is helping to decrease your stress levels, but I am also very aware of the fact that holidays can also create a great deal of stress. Expectations tend to be higher during holidays. Families are often together and sometimes that means lots of questions about your college plans or it could mean that siblings who are off to college are home and the change in routine can cause challenges. Students whose parents are divorced are often juggling multiple holidays and trying to be in several places at once which is never easy. Whatever the circumstances are for your family, try to remember that even though the holiday may not be the picture of perfection that you might see portrayed on movies or TV shows, it can still be enjoyable - even if it is stressful.

Finding the stress relievers that are effective in your own life is important not only during the holidays, but throughout the year. Talking to friends, journaling, drawing, reading, deep breathing, listening to music, running, coloring, playing sports, spending time with your pets, taking a walk, dancing, exercising, watching a funny movie, or helping someone less fortunate are all examples of some simple stress relievers that might be ideas you can consider utilizing. Remember, once we are back at school if you need someone to talk to about additional strategies for learning to manage the stress in your life, I am around and willing to listen.

We Survived!

Wow, it is hard to believe the career fair is over!  I hope you enjoyed it and learned a lot from the professionals who volunteered their time to talk with you.  After I was done problem solving I tried to wander around and I didn't make it through the whole fair so at least for me I felt like the event went by fast. I hope you were able to make it to talk to everyone you were interested in meeting.

I don't know that I could decide what I thought was the coolest part of the professionals that were there...

- I was totally shocked that the Dolphin Researcher (Luke Bogatay's aunt) and one of the construction people flew in from Florida and participated in the career fair.

-  I met a lady who told me that she was there with 2 of her sisters and that the three of them were graduates of Worthington High School (back when it was all 1 school) and that they had driven into town and stayed at a hotel in order to attend.

-  Speaking of giving back to your alma mater, there were 5 recent Kilbourne grads in attendance who had been WKHS students in the time that I have been at Kilbourne.  I know there were more adults who were Kilbourne grads, but these were actually students I knew and so that made it special.  I also think it is cool to think about the fact that when we do this career fair again in the future and you are no longer high school or even college students, that you might volunteer your time to come back and talk to the current students.

-  And, of course, I cannot leave out the parents who graciously gave their time to attend.

Perhaps the lack of updates to my blog gave you a pretty good guess, but I had a pretty quiet and relaxing weekend.  I literally slept more on Thursday night into Friday than I had on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights combined.  :-)  This is the first time I have turned on my computer at home since my last blog post.  With this being a holiday week, we won't be back to a regular update schedule just yet, but I will get at least one or two more updates up this week.

Many of you had plans to spend the long weekend making college visits and I cannot wait to hear what you thought about the campuses you saw (and hopefully see your pictures).  I'm also looking forward to hearing your thoughts and impressions about the career fair and what you learned about yourself and your potential career choices for the future.

Veterans Day

Sorry that there has been a lag in my blogging.  This coming Thursday is the Career Fair and every spare moment when I haven't been meeting with students at work has been spent trying to make sure that the students will have a great experience interacting with the professionals who are so generously volunteering their time to attend the event.  I will try to get some career related updates up this week since that is what is top of mind right now, but I appreciate your patience if I am slow in getting posts up again this week.

As you know, today is Veterans Day, a day when we pause to remember and honor the men and women who have served the United States in our military to protect our freedom.  I knew that I wanted to post something in honor of our nation's military and ended up looking back at last year's Veterans Day post and realized that even one year later it perfectly captured my thoughts and so I am sharing it with you all again...

As I reflected on how much I appreciate the service, dedication and sacrifice so many men and women have given to our country, I couldn't help but have my mind wander specifically to a few different groups of people. My mind went first to my grandfather and his friends, then I thought of all the Marines that I met while at the Parris Island for the Educator's Conference (what all the pictures and newspaper article in my office are from), and then I couldn't help but think of all of my former students who have served (or are currently serving) in the military.

I'll be honest, there is a part of me that is worried to put up this list because I am scared that I am missing people, but this is the list I could come up with tonight in alphabetical order... Vinnie Aebi, Adam Bardelang, Alex Blake, Josh Burton, Taylor Castelli, Eric Castoe, Austin Clouse, Tom Collier, Drew Cox, Dorothy Dibble, Joda Dotson, Stephen Downard, Michael Frizzi, and Zach Ellifritz.

There are no words to adequately express my gratitude and respect for your courage, strength and dedication to country. To all Veterans, thank you for your service and for those of you still in the military, thank you and please, stay safe!

Also, for those of you who might be thinking that you'd like to find ways to honor our nation's military men and women, I thought this article had some great ideas:

15 great ways for students to support our military

Students of the Month

Last Friday morning 18 students were recognized as WKHS Students of the Month.  This honor can only be received once during your four years of high school.  Four of "my" students were among those honored.

Congratulations to (L to R): Sydney Chesser, Hunter Bonvillain, Rosan Eldadah, and Gabrielle Dendinger.  I am proud of you and grateful for the positive impact you have on our school community!

Additionally, I would like to congratulate Shane Bennett who was honored as a Delaware Area Career Center Student of the Month nominee in the Welding program.  Way to go Shane!

Election Day Reminders

I wanted to remind everyone that you do not have school tomorrow because it is election day.  The staff have a professional development day, but students are not in session on election day since so many of the buildings are used as polling places.  Student security is of the utmost importance and this is one way to help make sure everyone stays safe.

I have heard that many students and their families are planning to take full advantage of this day off by visiting a college while students are in session allowing for a greater chance of sitting in on a class and interacting with people on a "typical day" on campus.  If you are among those making a college visit tomorrow, please remember that I would love to have a picture of you for the "Oh the Places You'll Go" display.  Other students are making use of the day off by volunteering their day as a poll worker.  Whatever you are doing, I hope you will be productive!

With it being election day, I will also remind you that the Worthington school district has 2 issues on the ballot - Issues 53 and 54.  Please be sure to look for these issues to support the school district.

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 academically. There is a great deal of flexibility though as students reach their junior and senior years. One of the most exciting options includes the possibility of attending the Delaware Area Career Center.

On Tuesday, all sophomores listened to a presentation about the Delaware Area Career Center (DACC) and the programs that they have available for students. Attending the Delaware Area Career Center is a great opportunity to earn your elective credits in an area that interests you rather than being forced to pick classes 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 many unique experiences and opportunities available that you can explore!

Sophomores – if you are interested in participating in the field trip to the DACC, please be sure to return your permission slip to Mrs. Windisch 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 Monday, November 19th.