Email & Senior Night Reminder

Many students are still learning to use e-mail regularly, however, it is very important to have an e-mail account of your own when it comes to college application time. College applications will ask you for your e-mail address.  Most of the time the colleges will use your e-mail as their primary way to communicate with you including notifying you of your admissions decision. (This also points out that it is important to regularly check your e-mail.) 

Some questions to ask yourself:

Do you have an account? (If not, you need to create one. There are tons of free choices available - gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.) 

Do you have an appropriate account? (In other words, is the name of your account appropriate as the college admissions officers will be seeing the e-mail address when reviewing your application... you don't want it to be "partygirl1" or something like that.) 

Is it YOUR account? (A lot of times students just rely on their parents e-mail addresses which works a lot in high school, but when you are at the college application point it is important to have your own account as many of the colleges will ask for your address and your parents address.)  

Is the account you're planning on using DIFFERENT than your school wscloud account? (This is critical because while your wscloud account is important to be checking for school information, it doesn't allow students to accept e-mails from outside of Worthington schools... which means that this account will NOT work for your college applications.)

In addition to having an e-mail account, it is also important to remember to use proper etiquette when communicating with college representatives via e-mail. For example, when you need to e-mail admissions officers for any reason, as well as any other college representatives (advisor, professor, etc.) that you communicate with, please remember that the way you write your e-mail is a reflection of you. Please do not use text talk, avoid ALL CAPS, be mature, and write it in an official format “Dear _(insert their name with Mr/ Mrs)_, Text of your message, Sincerely, _(insert your name)__”.

And then I also wanted to remind all of my senior students and parents that tomorrow night, Wednesday, September 1st, at 7pm on Zoom is the Senior College Information Night.  This is a key evening for all senior students who plan on applying to 4 year colleges and their families.  Looking forward to seeing you online tomorrow.

Confidentiality & CC+ Reminders

It is very important that I work to earn your trust every day. During high school there are times when you may wonder if there is anyone who cares and is willing to listen to what you are going through and I want to remind you that I care and I am here for you. Please remember that what you say to me is confidential between us unless you are a risk to yourself or someone else or someone is hurting you, in which case I am required to report it.

If you want to meet with me - just drop by my office! That is honestly the BEST way to meet with me. You don't need to schedule an appointment in advance. I'm generally around before and after school as well as during your lunch or academic prep/ option periods for you to stop in and chat. You don't need a big reason to come down and say Hi. I am happy to see you even if you just wanted to tell me how well or how poorly you did on a test that day. If I am busy meeting with another student or parent - you can stop back down or let me know that you want to see me by sending me a message through the Remind App, sending me an email or I hope to be able to set up the option again where you can leave a pass for me. If I don't know who you are and you have left a pass that leads me to search for you in the commons please try to help me out and let me know that "you" are the student if you see me wandering aimlessly through the tables. (I know, not always easy, but if you left a pass and I haven't tracked you down that day or the following day, chances are I can't find you.)

Also, a general reminder that tomorrow all of the CSCC college credit plus classes begin.  Hopefully you completed your online orientation and logged into blackboard.  Your instructors are looking forward to meeting you tomorrow and/ or Tuesday (depending on which classes you are taking).

Parent Lunch & Learn

Students, today's post is actually a message completely for your parents...

One new project that the counselors are going to test out this year is doing a parent Lunch and Learn series with a different session each quarter.  Our idea is to host a brief presentation on a particular topic over zoom during lunch time so that parents/ guardians can join and listen in from home or work while eating their lunch.  The goal is that the presentation will take about 15 minutes and then that will give about 15 minutes for any other questions that families might have that we could address as a whole group.  We are excited about this opportunity to leverage technology and to meet families where they are so that you can get the most up to date information that we can share with you.

The first Parent Lunch & Learn Series topic is Testing 101: PSAT, PreACT, ACT and SAT.  We will be hosting it at noon this coming Friday, September 3rd.  The zoom link will be emailed to all parents and we will also post it on the Counselor Website on Friday morning.

I am really excited about this series and this topic in particular so I hope you will make plans to join me online over zoom!

Class Rank

When completing college applications you will find that most colleges will ask “What is your class rank?” and if they can’t get you to give them an exact rank they might also ask you for a percentile ranking. (Some schools may not ask you and may ask on the counselor form that I am required to complete for you.) The official answer is “We Do Not Rank.”

That is what I write on all of the forms that I complete for you and what you should indicate on your application – UNLESS you are one of the students with a grade point average of a 4.0 or higher for your high school career. If you have greater than a 4.0, then you are automatically ranked #1 in the class. (So yes, that would mean that there are multiple Seniors, Juniors, and Sophomores ranked first in their respective class.)

As you already know, WKHS is an academically competitive high school and we would not want a class ranking to hurt you in any way. For example, a GPA at WKHS might rank in the top 20%, but at a less competitive school the same GPA might rank in the top 5 or 10%. So, unless you have a 4.0 or better, do yourself a favor and write “Do Not Rank” when completing your applications.

CC+ Reminders - CSCC

For all of our students who are taking Comp 1, Psychology, or Ethics through CSCC at WKHS this fall, you know that your classes don't start until August 30th... so you have one more week to before your college classes begin, but you do have steps to take now to get ready.

1. You need to log into Blackboard, check your CSCC email, and complete their online orientation (they would have emailed you info to your CSCC email account.

Just a few hints related to the above steps... 

- I would strongly encourage you to link your CSCC email to your phone or to an email account that you check often so that you don't miss messages from your professors.

- If you can't remember your Cougar ID number, please use the look-up feature on the CSCC website.

2. If this is your first CSCC CC+ class, I also strongly encourage you to participate in one of their College Credit Plus Kickoff Workshops.  Here is the information CSCC sent us about these workshops:

Once again, we are offering our CCP Kickoff for new students to College Credit Plus. Students are invited to get a jump on preparing for the Autumn Semester by attending our virtual CCP Kickoff session. This session will cover: 

• College Credit Plus overview 
• College success strategies 
• How to access Columbus State student success resources 
• How to utilize Columbus State technology resources (Blackboard, Collaborate, CougarWeb, etc.) 
• Columbus State Library resources 

CCP Kickoff will be offered virtually. Here are the session dates and times:  

Wednesday, August 25th
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Click here to register

Saturday, August 28th
10:00 a.m. - noon
Click here to register 

If you have any questions about CCP Kickoff, please email ccpevents@cscc.edu. 

3.  Last but not least, is just a suggestion - I actually am not 100% sure on how this will work for college classes offered in high schools, but CSCC has announced that they are requiring everyone to wear masks at all times.  This means it is very plausible that your instructors will expect you to wear a mask while you are in their class.  So, I would suggest that you be proactive and stick an extra mask in your backpack just in case you end up needing to wear it in your CC+ classes even if you haven't been wearing it at other times throughout the day.

Schedule Changes

Hooray!  We made it through the first week of school.  I hope you had a great start to the year - for me, getting up early was definitely a tough adjustment.  I suspect I'm not alone in that, but we will get adjusted before long.  

Speaking of adjustments... if you are hoping to adjust something to your schedule I want to remind you that Monday is the LAST day to add a class to your schedule.  So, if you wanted to drop one class and add another in it's place - Monday is the final day to do that.  For those students who have 7 classes, you can drop (without adding a replacement) your extra class through the 6th week of school without it appearing on your transcript.  But most students are not in a position to drop something without adding another class in it's place.

Senior College Night

Senior Students and Parents - Save the Date!

The College Information Night for all senior students and parents will be held on Wednesday, September 1st virtually over zoom at 7pm.  We will cover the specifics related to how to request your transcript, seeking recommendation letters, and important application details that you won't want to miss.

We know that the start of the school year is so crazy with so many different events and so our hope is that doing this meeting via zoom will give you a little added flexibility to your evening so that you can join us for the presentation.

We will email the zoom link to students and parents on the morning of September 1st as well as have it posted on the Counselor Website so that you can join in on the meeting.  There will be plenty of time available for Q&A following the presentation.

Also, check your emails for the Senior Class Packet.  We created this in response to feedback from some of the parents who wanted a single packet that would walk them through all of the different steps and components of the senior year.  We are pleased to be able to share this resource with you.

New Faces

Each year there are new staff members who start at Kilbourne whose names you might see on your schedule.  So I wanted to give you a heads up on our newest staff members so that if/ when you see them in the halls or have them for class you will know who they are and their role at WKHS.

In the Counseling Center we are so excited to welcome Mrs. Schnell.  She has taken on the part of the alphabet that Mrs. Gratz used to have before she retired.  In case you or a friend needs to find her office, Mrs. Schnell is in Ms. Wessell's old office space.  (Mrs. Mann moved to Mrs. Gratz's old office space.)

Mr. Almanson is a new Assistant Principal at WKHS.  Some of you may remember him from MS if you had been a McCord student as he was AP over there for several years before coming to Kilbourne.

And, sticking with the counseling/ administrative type of staff, we are also welcoming Ms. Zupan to WKHS as a new mental health specialist working with Ms. Wessell.  Both of their offices are now going to be down near student services instead of in the counseling center.

We have several new teachers including Ms. Aly (English), Ms. Goldenbagen (Math), Mr. Chidsey (Orchestra), and Mr. Krygielski (Stagecraft).

And, then finally, we will have Ms. Rothwell in the cafeteria, 3 new school psychologists in the building part time (Mr. Prokop, Ms. Leeman, and Mr. Pilcher), and 2 EL staff members (Ms. Jarvis and Ms. Thesing.)

We got to meet them all today and they seemed nice - I know that they are looking forward to meeting all of you and being a part of our WKHS Pack.

Student ID's

We have already had students lose their student ID cards that we have randomly found in the halls and parking lot of the school.  If you lost your ID, please stop by Student Services on your first day of school to see if your ID was one of those that have been found.

Your ID cards are a far more important than this year than ever before.  Not only will they be helpful with things in the past like verifying your identity for testing, but now they can help you get free opportunities!

WKHS students who present their ID cards at the gate can get entry into any Worthington MS/ HS athletic event.  This allows you to go out and support your friends at all of the different sporting events.  Definitely a nice way to make up for last year when you had to miss out on being there in person to cheer on your friends in their sports.

Although I don't think you will need your ID card - just your pin number - all students will be getting free breakfasts and lunches again this year.  So you would only have to pay for food at school if you want extras beyond the breakfast and lunch that you get for free.

One other reason that your ID cards will be important is that any student who is coming into school late such as after a doctors appointment or just because you were running late, you will now swipe your ID card to help get a pass to class... which means you will want to carry your ID card with you each day and keep it somewhere that you won't lose it.

If you have questions about the ID cards, I would suggest starting with the secretarial staff - believe me, they run the show and know so much more than I do.  But if you're still having trouble figuring something out related to your ID, feel free to see me and I can try to help find someone who will be able to help you.

Summer Assignment Reminder

It's your final weekend of summer... and summer sure did fly past in a hurry.  Hopefully throughout the summer you have been pacing yourself and working on your summer assignments if they classes you are taking this year require them.  If not, then I suppose this doesn't feel like much of a weekend to you as you are probably scrambling to try to get the work completed in time.  If you have lost your summer assignments, please feel free to check out the WKHS Counselor website - www.wkhscounselors.com - as the teachers have submitted your assignments on there as well.

I also want to remind you that it is time to go out and buy school supplies for the new year.  Please think about your style of learning and organizing materials so that you purchase items that will help and not hinder you.  For example, if you are a "stuffer" and tend to shove everything into your book bag you would do better with folders than binders... and you probably need a LOT of folders because the folders will start to rip as you try to shove more and more information into them.  One strategy is to plan to have a folder per class per quarter.  Or maybe you are great at putting things into a binder as long as your papers have holes punched in them - in that case you might benefit from a small 3-hole puncher that fits into your binder so that you can always keep your materials where you want them.  You know you best - you know what has and hasn't worked for you before.  Rather than just continuing to do the same thing you've always done truly think about your needs and find the materials that will work to your advantage all year long.

Enjoy your last 3-4 days of summer!

Common App 101

Seniors, it is time to start applying to college!  Common App is a website that many colleges use to allow students to fill out one application that will then be sent to multiple colleges.  If you are applying to 4-year schools it is worth your time to explore Common App and see if the colleges you are considering use it.

Because the vast majority of our students will apply using Common App we have learned a lot of the common questions students have when filling out their application and frequent errors you will want to be sure to avoid.  To help share that information with our students, the counselors will be hosting 2 Common App 101 workshops so that you can pick the date/ time and setting that best meets your schedule.

This Thursday, August 12th at 1:00pm we will do a Zoom Common App 101 Workshop.  And the other workshop option will be an in-person session on Monday, August 16th at 1:00pm in Room 207.

We are asking all seniors to sign up for the session that you want to attend using the email that was sent to your wscloud account yesterday.  If you register for the zoom session, the link will be mailed to you on Thursday morning.  If you register for the in-person session, please be sure to bring your Chromebook or laptop with you to use during the workshop.

Schedule Pick Up Days

It's hard to believe that we are just 2 days away from you picking up your schedules for the coming year!  I wanted to make sure you are aware of the designated days for you to pick up your schedules and answer some of the most common questions that have been coming my way.

Tuesday, August 10th: 
9th graders - 8:30 - 11:00am
All students new to the district (regardless of grade) - 8:30 - 11:00am
12th graders - 12:30 - 3:00pm

Wednesday, August 11th:
11th graders - 8:30 - 11:00am
10th graders - 12:30 - 3:00pm

Thursday, August 12th:
Make up for Any Grades - 6:00 - 8:00pm

This evening opportunity on August 12th is for any students who aren't able to come on your designated day/ time to pick up your schedule due to a parent not being able to bring you to school, etc. then you have an evening option to be able to get your schedule.  Students also ask if they are allowed to come with a sibling at a different time slot and the answer to that is yes.  We will make it work to help accommodate your needs.

Don't forget, schedule pick up day is packed with lots of activities - finding your locker, getting your school picture taken, picking up your books, etc.

The process is paperless again this year which means that your emergency medical information, health forms, athletic forms and fees needs to be updated and paid online BEFORE coming through the schedule pick up lines.  Those forms will all be on the Worthington Schools website (not counselor website).

I know that every year there are questions about what you should do if you are not available to attend on your designated schedule pick up day.  If you will not be able to attend any of the designated schedule pick up sessions, you can pick up your schedule and take care of the other steps on Monday, August 16th or Tuesday, August 17th from 1:00 - 3:00pm.  (No morning pick up's on those dates though because we are all in mandatory meetings both mornings.)  And then, of course, you can also come to school on August 18th when it is just the 9th graders at school to pick up a copy of your schedule.

Each year schedule pick up days are some of the craziest days in my office, but I am looking forward to seeing you!  Hopefully when you see your schedule it will look perfect and be exactly what you were anticipating and hoping for... but I know that isn't always the case.  If you end up needing to ask for a schedule change please just email me with your request.  Note that NO TEACHER CHANGES are allowed.  On Schedule pick up days so many times students will wait in long lines to ask a question that I can answer for you super fast via email.  So know that you do NOT have to wait!!!  Just email me with your request.  If I can do it, I will make the change and you will be able to access your new schedule in Infinite Campus before school starts.  Remember, as in the past, if you need to change to a core class, you will need to get your parents on board with the change and so they can either email me that they support the change or you can confirm for me that you have talked it over with your parents and that they are authorizing the change.  I have to be honest with you though, classes are tight with VERY few seats remaining so you need to be prepared for the fact that it may not be possible to make many changes.  (For example, Biology and Health are 100% full so those classes cannot move anywhere at all.  That is just an easy sample of so many other classes.)  

Even if you make a schedule change, don't forget to save your original schedule because it has your locker or computer access information.  :-)

See you on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Common App

Today is August 1st... do you know what that means?  For seniors, it means that it is officially college application time!  :-)  Woohoo!  Here we go!

Common App went live today for the students in the Class of 2022.  I have been on their website exploring and the updated site looks user-friendly and straight-forward.  Granted, I say that having worked with the system a lot and I know that it isn't always quite as easy for all of you who will be working on applications for the first time.

In fact, let me back up a step... the Common Application is a centralized application that students can complete for 950 different colleges using this one application. The colleges that participate in this application commit to treating applications received through the Common App with the same consideration as if students had applied through the institutions individual application or through the Coalition Application. This will generally mean that you have to spend less time filling out all of the basic information about yourself and can mean that you have fewer essays to write (but maybe not).

On the Common App there is a 650 word essay that will be required for many colleges, but you do have a choice about what essay to pick from a list of prompts.  There are some colleges which will identify the essay as being optional.  We probably need to talk about how "optional" the optional essay really is so before you decide to skip it completely, let's discuss it.  And then for this year there is an "optional" COVID essay question of 250 words.  The other optional essay is to give you the chance to explain any special circumstances.  Most students won't need that one, but if you do, we have likely already talked about it previously.

One of the more confusing parts of the Common App for many students is that in addition to the main and COVID essays, many of the colleges will also have supplements required which are other questions of their own that they want students to complete. Sometimes it is just simple questions that weren't covered on the Common App, but would have been if you had applied through their individual application, but often times it includes short or long answer essays. Be aware and be prepared for that when completing your application and read those questions in advance so you know what to expect.  You will find this information under the "My Colleges" tab and then select each college down the left side of the page and click on "Questions" under both Application and Writing Supplement for each of the colleges where you will be applying.

Not all schools use the common app, but a lot of them do.  There are 47 Ohio schools which will utilize the common application this year, so as you are getting ready to start applications for the schools you are considering it is worth looking to see if more than one school from your list utilizes the Common App.

I anticipate that I will host a session to help walk interested groups of students through the Common App to be able to help you with specific details, but here are a few broad-overview things I want to make sure you are aware of to help as you are starting with your application...

- On the Explore section where you can look for colleges that use the Common Application there are search criteria filters that allow you to select colleges that don't require recommendation letters or don't require essays.  Both are good to know if you are doing things at the last second, but for what it is worth, that is NOT the best way to select your future college.  :-)  It made me laugh though because I am sure there are plenty of kids who will use that to help narrow their options in finding a school.

-  The general information that you will complete for all of the colleges is under the "Common App" tab.

- After you have selected your colleges and added them to your list you will see specific questions that each individual school wants to ask.  You will find these specific questions and writing supplement pages for the individual colleges under the "My Colleges" tab.  

-  If you have attended WKHS for all 4 years of high school, then you entered Kilbourne in August 2018.

- There are 327 students in your class.

-  Your graduation date is May 2022.  (Exciting!)

-  It will ask you about other schools you have attended.  Obviously, if you moved into Worthington you have other schools to list, but I also want to remind you that if you took summer classes through a different school district (such as TRECA or K-12) then you need to include that school on your common app form too.

-  If you are a student who has or will be taking classes through College Credit Plus, you will list the schools in the Colleges and Universities section with the checkbox for "Dual Enrollment while in high school" marked.  Don't forget - if you are taking COTC math classes along with CSCC English or Psych types of classes that you would have 2 colleges to list.

-  I strongly encourage you to make a complete list of your activities and honors BEFORE attempting to fill out the Common App.  For example, you will need to give a total number of your honors before you start naming them.  If you haven't developed that resume list then you'll have a tough time filling it out.

-  In the activities section, you can write about your top 10 activities.  Be sure to put them in the order of importance to you.  You can use the arrows to move them up or down if you get out of order.

-  There is a student self-reporting transcript section called "Courses and Grades."  Please know that your transcripts WILL STILL BE SENT to the colleges so you absolutely MUST be sure that you enter the information in the system exactly like it appears on your transcript.  The good news is that once school starts again you will be able to download and print your transcript off of Infinite Campus to use when completing this section.  It is very straight forward to use, but I have to admit that you will likely find it a bit tedious.  For the record (although I suspect you know this), our grading scale is A-F and we are on semesters.  Also, when you are filling out this section the "Other Courses" section is where you will list any high school classes that you completed during middle school or summer school.

-  As you are working on each area there is a panel on the right side of the page titled "Help Center" and I found it helpful as I was going through the different areas.  Some of the typical questions kids have asked me in the past as they are completing the Common App are now answered in the help center.

Let the fun begin!  Good luck as you start working on your applications and keep an eye out in the coming weeks for information about a Common App Completion Workshop.