Senior Recognition Night

Tonight was the Senior Recognition Night - a time when graduating seniors are honored for the contributions and awards they have received over the last four years of high school.  In addition, tonight also celebrated the scholarships that the seniors have been awarded.  This is such a special evening to celebrate your accomplishments.  I am proud of you and was grateful to be able to participate in your evening of well-deserved recognition!

I wish I would have counted how many of "my" students were invited to participate, but I didn't bring a copy of the program home with me and I didn't think to do it before I left school tonight, but it was definitely an impressive group!  I believe there were 27 of my students who were in attendance and there were definitely a decent number of my students who were unable to attend tonight.  

Pictured above are those students who earned Highest Honors Recognition (L to R): Maggie Baumgardner, Elizabeth Borchers, Hana Estice, Tessa Bolon, Jake Eyen, Haley Carlson, Steven Borchers, Michelle Borchers and Courtney Fisher.

Obviously, with so many of you it was impossible for me to get the entire group together for a picture, but I absolutely LOVED that you all are used to me enough to know that I want pictures for this blog and you helped gather everyone that you could see to join together for this picture.

(Front to back/ left to right): Vaishnavi Dasaka, Grayson Brown, Michelle Borchers, Steven Borchers, Elizabeth Borchers, Miriam Bassani, Alexis Anderson, Tessa Bolon, Hana Estice, Alan Brophy, Justin Souder, Iric Bernal, Dom Brown, Jacob Bloom, Emily Bowen, Ariel Bloom and Grayson Biglin.  In all sincerity, thank you!  I know that I pulled many of you from other conversations and time with family and friends to grab the picture, but it means so much to me! 

Congratulations to everyone honored tonight! 

Articles of Interest

Ready for some reading?  I have been keeping a list of articles that I thought might appeal to you and decided that it was beyond time for me to post and share them with you.  Hope that these are helpful for you...

The college search: advice for you and your college roommate


2 opposite ways of nailing the college search

Affordability tops annual ‘Hopes and Worries’ Survey of applicants

Students submitting more applications than ever

How to “Demonstrate Interest” when applying to college

Parent over involvement hurts chances for admissions

Inside the admissions process at George Washington University

How you can demonstrate interest in your favorite college choice

Different college application options and what they mean

What to know about college admission decisions

They loved your GPA then they saw your tweets

13 very smart ways to connect with colleges you can’t visit

Current students share advice on making the right college choice

Weigh passion, practicality to narrow your college search

Colorado college lets students keep pets in their dorms

10 ways to predict success in college

3 reasons not to overthink your final college choice

Know the questions students, parents should ask during college tours

Consider the downside of attending a reach school

Should sophomores take the ACT, the old SAT or the new SAT?

Colleges still accepting applications for Fall 2015

9 ways to feel less stress when life gets crazy busy

Burning the candle: most US kids lack sleep

5 reminders for finding strength and peace in times of grief

3 questions for parents to ask about teen summer programs

Seek out-of-school experiences to help choose a college major

10 Things to remember when you feel lost and alone

Casual Marijuana Use, Brain abnormalities linked in new study of young adults

How to rewire your brain for better sleep

This is what happens in a depressed person’s brain

Opening doors through community service

16 great jobs that pay 90k or more

6 steps to finding the perfect career

Data mining college career reports

3 keys for success on the ACT Science section

What to do if your SAT scores are bad

4 tips for conquering the ACT, SAT Math Sections

Navigate 3 common SAT, ACT Reading section mistakes

Why the SAT drives us N.U.T.S.

Salvage summer ACT/ SAT prep with a shortened timeline

Target 3 overlooked SAT, ACT Test prep resources

Free test prep online

Have you heard? SAT’s are changing

It’s official: out with the big words

College board joining with Khan Academy for SAT prep

A new SAT aims to realign with schoolwork

Introducing the new, radically different SAT

College board unveils sample SAT items

The truth behind the spin on the changes  to the SAT

Senior Details

For seniors everything is winding down... 

At this point in time you are hopefully finishing up your school projects and are prepared for your final exams and any other remaining academic requirements since you only have 8 days left. I wanted to make sure that you had taken care of some of the other last minute details...

* Finish strong: If you are not doing well in your classes, please make sure you do everything that you need to do to pass your classes with the highest grades possible. Above all, please make sure that you pass all of your classes that are requirements for graduation!

* Final Transcript: When you graduate from WKHS and move on to college the college will want a copy of your final transcript showing your 2nd semester grades and the fact that you did graduate. As is always the case we cannot release your records without your express written permission. We included the final transcript request form on your mandatory graduation questionnaire, but I was looking at the list today and was disappointed to see that some of you still haven't submitted your form.  Please stop by the counseling center to complete and turn in your form.

* Fees/ Fines: Some students still have outstanding fees and fines that you owe to the school. It may be a very small fee for an overdue library book or it could be a much larger fee for a lost textbook, but either way, please make sure that all of your debt is paid before next week so that you will be able to participate in the commencement ceremony.

* Textbook/ Library Book Returns: You will need to turn in all of your textbooks as well as any library books that you still have. The book room will be open for you to return your textbooks after you have finished with your exams and are done with your books.

* Scholarship Thank You's: If you received a scholarship, don't forget the importance of writing a thank you note to the individual, group or organization who is providing you with the scholarship. This article provides good information and suggestions as you write your scholarship thank you.

* Stop by and see me: Selfishly, I would like to also add this to your list as I would love to have a few more minutes with you while you are still in high school. And, for those of you who still haven't given me a senior picture, I will remind you again that I would love to have one! :-)

Happy Mother's Day & Late Start

I hope you all had a great weekend and took the time to honor the mom's and grandma's and aunt's and others in your life this Mother's Day. I would like to wish all the Kilbourne mom's who follow my blog a happy Mother's Day. I was lucky enough to be able to spend the weekend with 3 of my favorite moms. (Left to right): My sister who is an incredible mom to my niece and nephews, my mom who always loves and believes in me, and my grandma who is 92 years old and I'm so fortunate to still have in my life.

I also wanted to remind all of you that your last late start day for the year is tomorrow so your classes won't begin until 9:10am. Enjoy sleeping in!

Summer Enrichment Programs

Each year we receive information about summer programs for students.  Sometimes these programs are local camps, sometimes they are lengthy opportunities specific to a particular area of career interest, and other times it provides college experiences to allow students the chance to explore a campus and community.  We have been placing them on the WKHS Counselor website for you to be able to reference.  Please be aware that there is a wide range of costs for the different programs and so it is essential that you look closely to determine if it is worth the money.  (There is an article at the bottom that points out that expensive programs may not be worth it.)  Students often ask if the programs run by a college will give you an advantage when it comes to admissions at that school, and unfortunately it does not, so that should not be your sole reason to participate in a program.

Expensive Summer Programs May Not Be Worth It

Spring Cleaning

Another school year is winding down (but it is not over so you still need to apply yourself fully - read post from a last week about the importance of finishing school strong...) and the spring weather that has finally appeared and upcoming exams are two likely reasons that you may decide to do some "spring cleaning" of your school materials. As you go through your bookbags and homework/ study areas there are a few things to keep in mind. Does your system work for you? Are you able to find everything you want and need without having to search? Do you spend more time organizing and looking for the piece of paper that you know has the answer than you do actually completing the project or assignment? Do you know what you want or need to save for the future? And yes, I am talking about more than just digging out of your room just in case your parents decide to convert your room into a guest bedroom after you go to college... :-)

Keeping your notes organized and any study guides, equation summary sheets, as well as old tests and quizzes in a way that will allow you to pull upon that information in the future is very important. I can tell you that from my experience in college, if I had not saved my notes from calculus in high school then there is no way that I would have passed that class in college! Your notes can often be the most useful resource (assuming you take good notes each day) because you are re-writing the main topics in your own words and organizing the information in a manner that makes sense to you. Old study guides, tests and quizzes are all very useful when trying to study for an upcoming exam.

So, take a little time now to prepare for your upcoming final exams and (for the seniors) for college when you might want or need this information by getting organized today. If you need help with talking about some better strategies for organizing your materials, feel free to stop in and we can talk about some different ideas to see if one of them sounds like it could work for you.

GPA Calculator

Many students are trying to guesstimate what they need to do in order to raise their grade point average. This blog post includes a link to a GPA Calculator which will allow you to calculate what grades you would need to earn in order to achieve your desired GPA. (You will need to have your current GPA which you can find on your transcript in the reports area of Infinite Campus.)