WKHS Alumni

Today, four different groups of WKHS alumni who are currently in college returned to Kilbourne to share their insights and offer feedback and suggestions to some of our current students. This was organized by the Worthington Kilbourne Activity Club, a group of passionate volunteer parents who work behind the scenes for the good of our students and I loved it!

I always love visiting with former students. In fact, over winter break I was able to meet up with a student from the Class of 2008... so no matter how many years they have been gone, my students are still and always will be important to me. (Which, for current students serves as a good reminder that I'd always like to see you- now while you're my student or some day many years from now.)  Today, nearly half of the students who were back happened to be "my" former students. Some I had seen relatively recently, but others I had not seen in a very long time and it meant so much that they would volunteer their time to come back and talk.  It really was such an exciting day to see my former students, to reconnect and learn about what is happening in their lives, and to listen as they shared about their experiences in college.

I wasn't able to sit through all of their presentations, but a few of the key takeaways that I heard from them included:

- Kilbourne prepares you well for college. 

- Take advantage of all the opportunities available to you while in high school. 

- Remember that college can provide you the chance to reinvent yourself and to be your true self. 

- Be open to learning- both in high school and college and realize that learning is more than just what happens in your classrooms- you will learn from new people, new ideas and new challenges. 

- Develop study skills now! High school is the time to learn what works best for you in studying. 

- Learn how to take responsibility for yourself- manage your time, plan ahead, do laundry, read- all of it matters!

- In college you may pick a large school or a small school, but building relationships with your teachers matters just like it matters in high school. 

- High school classes can feel really hard at times, but they are preparing you for college so keep pushing (within reason) and don't give up just because it is hard. 

- Getting involved is the best way to meet new people and build friendships. (FYI- that is the same as in high school... Many of you haven't had to experience the challenge of making "new" friends since you've grown up in the community, but if you're ever trying to foster new friendships or meet different people that is the best way to do it.)

- Try to expose yourself to as many different classes and learning opportunities as possible (like senior project) so that you can start determining what you might be interested in studying in the future. 

Those are just 10 of the points... I took over 5 pages of typed notes today because they had so many valuable things to share. For all those who had the chance to participate and listen to them, I hope you also found it to be a valuable use of your time and thought that it was interesting and helpful. 

A huge thank you to"my" alumni who presented and are pictured above: Micah Vincent (USNA), Joey Cipicchio (Brown) and Iric Bernal (OSU); Bailey Andrews (Belmont), Andrew Cook (OU), Hana Estice (Brown), and Grace Ellis (OSU); Erin Dieringer (Carnegie Mellon), Claire Chilcoat (OSU), Haley Carlson (OSU), Sammy Crozier (Miami), and Ryan Baxter (OSU); and Steven Borchers (Dayton), Michelle Borchers (Dayton), Lauren Hedges (OSU), and Phil Carlson (OSU)!