Career Thoughts for Future

What do you want to be when you grow up? When you were little perhaps it was a professional athlete, a superhero, or a famous entertainer. Chances are that now that you are in high school you have started re-thinking some of your potential career choices. While there is still a lot of uncertainty and you will, in all likelihood based upon the statistics, change career paths in the future, it is time to start figuring out what you might like to be when you grow up.

I *know* you hate it when I say this, but the reality is that you need to know yourself and follow your passions. If you love what you do and you are willing to work hard then you will be able to find success. Everyone has their own unique gifts and talents and it is imperative that you determine what career will best meet your needs. This means you have to figure out what is important to you and how you can incorporate that into your life. For example, for those who love sports it can be hard to imagine life without athletics and, many times, these individuals will pick (at least initially) careers that involve sports - athletic training, sports management, sports marketing, etc. This might be the perfect combination - but truthfully, it might not be a good fit. Knowing yourself and knowing what you have a passion for is important in determining what characteristics of a job will be best suited for you. In this example, the sports minded person might pick a career that involves teamwork where groups of people work closely together to reach a common goal. Or, if you decide that you are not going to be able to fulfill one of your life's passions through your career, then it is important that you still honor that influence in some other way - perhaps playing on an adult recreational team or coaching a youth sport team. While this example deals with sports the same concept applies to any of your interests and passions - art, music, learning.

So, while I am not asking you to abandon your dreams of fame and fortune as the professional athlete, superhero, or entertainer, I am asking you to start thinking seriously about what will make you happy, what is important to you, and how a career can help meet your needs and goals in life.  

One important career related opportunity available to students is participating in one of the programs at the Delaware Area Career Center.  I wanted to remind all sophomore students interested in participating in the field trip to the Delaware Area Career Center on Friday, November 22nd that your permission slips are due back to the secretaries in the Counseling Center by Thursday! I realize that this is a month before the actual field trip, but the Career Center needs to organize the visits based upon the programs that you want to see. If you are even remotely considering applying for admission to the DACC, or interested in exploring the types of things that someone in the careers that are addressed at the career center do as a part of their jobs, I strongly encourage you to join us for the field trip!

College Fair Reminder

Did you notice that most of the staff were decked out in college shirts yesterday?  I'm the mean mom who even forced Lexi to wear a "college cape" all day to help serve as a reminder that tomorrow, Sunday, October 13th from 1:00 - 3:30pm is the Columbus Suburban College Fair at Westerville Central High School.  This is the largest, local fall college fair and a great opportunity for our students.

If you have never been to a college fair before, I admit that it often feels like mass chaos.  But it is also the opportunity for you to gain a lot of useful information from a large number of schools in a short period of time.  

The good news is that college fairs give you a chance to meet with admissions representatives in person. They are all gathered together in one place in order to meet you and to answer your questions. Many schools also keep track of the number of interactions/ meetings you have with their admissions representatives during your search and application process so that they can gauge your interest level in their school. To help make this process easier for you, this year all students are asked to pre-register by texting MASCOT to 75644.  After you do that you will receive a reply text with a link.  Go to the link and fill out your information.  You will only need to do that one time.  Then, at the college fair, you will be able to share your information with any of the colleges that interest you.

Be prepared before you get to the college fair. Know that there will be far more schools than you are interested in or can even truly take in during one afternoon, so it is useful to come up with a list of colleges that you would be interested in learning more about by doing a search that looks for different criteria that seems to be a good fit for you. With that list in hand you now have a starting point for the colleges that you would like to talk to during the fair.

It can be useful to ask the same questions of each college so that you can compare them and their responses appropriately. The National Association of College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) has suggestions of questions and I encourage you to also consider thinking about the things you most want to know about the school and can’t find in a brochure or website. Everyone is different so your questions are going to be different depending upon your interests, but if you are really interested in playing a club sport in college, you might want to ask about their club/ intramural program and the numbers of students that participate. You may want to ask what the top 2 or 3 majors are on campus as that will give you an idea of what most of the students are interested in studying. If you are undecided about what you would like to study, it would be a great idea to ask them what support and services are available to help students in exploring different majors.

Take something with you to be able to jot some notes on and also a pen or pencil. It is a crazy event with so much happening that if you don’t write it down as you go you won’t remember much after the fact. The admissions representatives are giving you a small look of the college – what do you think following each glimpse?

While you are walking through the college fair with the list of schools that you want to talk to don’t forget to leave some time for browsing – you may realize that a school you had not previously considered has just what you are looking for in a college. It can be easy for us to get caught in the cycle of only looking at specific schools because that is what “everyone” else is considering.

Ideally, you will be able to avoid getting caught up in the crowds and confusion so that you don’t walk away from the college fair with a lot of brochures, but no real ideas or impressions about which colleges most interest you. At the end of the college fair you will likely have a bag filled with information about colleges. As the “Faring Well at College Fairs” article says, “Don’t succumb to the temptation of just piling all those brochures in some obscure corner of your bedroom. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a day or two away from the college search. Then get out all of those brochures, along with the notes you took at the fair, and read through them. You may find that some colleges aren’t as interesting as you first thought. Others only look better the more you research them.”
Take a deep breath, relax, and try not to get too overwhelmed.  Good luck and happy college searching… I can’t wait to hear about the schools that spark your interest!

Emotional Health

I love reading lots of different websites, blogs, and other sources for gaining information that can help me both personally and professionally.  One of the people who I really appreciate the daily email newsletters is Brian Kight.  He sends out brief emails (or texts) on Daily Discipline which primarily look at discipline, focus and skill.  He had sent out a message back in July that I have revisited many times and today I thought you might like it as well.  Here is what he had to say:

Emotional Health Starts with Self-Awareness.

Emotions are indicators.  There's a reason you feel the way you do.  Emotions are trying their best to point your attention to those reasons.  How you feel is the primary experience, but why you feel it is the primary importance.  Sometimes the experience of an emotion is so fast, intense, or disorienting that you never honestly evaluate the reason you feel the way you do.

For every emotion, there's a reason you feel the way you do and that reason matters.  Self-awareness reveals the source fueling your feelings.

Embrace the chase.  Do the work.


I loved the message.  It is easy to just feel something and either stuff it inside or react without pausing to figure out what is really going on in and for you, but that is where the richness lies and where the growth can happen.  Hopefully you are paying attention to your emotions and what they are trying to teach you each day.

If you are interested in getting Brian Kight's messages or reading more of what types of things he shares you can check out his website about these daily discipline messages.

College App Progress

Seniors, are you done with your college applications?  And by done, I mean DONE.  Totally, completely done... as in all essays written, applications submitted, transcripts requested, recommendation letters completed, fees paid, and test scores sent.

There are a handful of you who can honestly answer YES!  Those students are kicked back, relaxing and loving the fact that they are through the stress of applying.

But for most of you... I suspect even just reading that list of steps that you need to be sure you have completed is making you feel overwhelmed.  This post is a reminder for you...

Tomorrow, during your lunch periods the counselors will be in Room 201 (right across from the drop in lab) to help students with your applications.  We can help give you a focused place to work, review your common app information and check for common mistakes, point you in the right direction for requesting your transcript, review your essays, and answer whatever questions you might have.  Unless you are truly and completely done with your applications, you should be spending your lunch period with us tomorrow working on the applications.  Taking it one step at a time and making use of moments, like this, which are available to you is how you will get through your applications.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow during your lunch period!

Early Decision

Seniors are in very different places regarding where they are at with the college application process. Some of you have barely given a thought to where all you want to apply (for the record, this worries me, so if you are in that situation, please come talk to me). Others have already received their acceptances and are ready to kick back and enjoy senior year. The vast majority are somewhere in between the two extremes.

While I am always happy to help you in any way possible, there are some decisions that are for you and your family to make. For example, what schools you apply to and when you apply (assuming it is before the deadline) is entirely up to you. The other issue that has been weighing heavily on the minds of some students and their parents is the choice about if they should apply under Early Decision. Remember, as I explained previously, Early Decision is binding. If you are not 100% sure if you want to go to that school, then the choice about should you apply early decision or not is actually quite easy - no. Because it is a binding decision, you cannot wait and see and take more time to decide, so if you are not completely sure about your desire to attend that school, then applying early decision would not be a wise decision. The other aspect that you and your family must seriously consider is the financial impact that attending the school could involve as you are making a commitment to attend the school and that you will withdraw your applications at all of your other schools. This means you will not be able to compare financial aid packages to see which school will provide the best offer. 

Some of you may be wondering what the advantage is to applying Early Decision. Aside from getting your admissions decision earlier, there is a definite advantage at some schools where applying as an early decision student increases your potential to be accepted at the school. This is, in part, due to the fact that it eliminates the concern from the college's side of if you will choose to actually come to their college in the future or not.  The data on how many of their accepted students actually end up coming and attending their college in the future is one of the factors that impacts college rankings and therefore it is an important predictor for colleges. 

Remember, if you plan on applying early decision, I need to know ahead of time because there is a form I must sign off on indicating that I have talked to you and your parents to confirm that I have reviewed with you the binding nature of applying early decision.

Columbus Suburban College Fair

For students who are just starting the process to begin thinking about where they might want to apply to college in the future, college fairs can provide the perfect opportunity to interact with a large number of college admissions officers all in one setting.  Granted, this will just be a quick snapshot, but it is a great chance for 9th - 11th graders to begin the process of thinking about what you are seeking in a college and identifying schools which might be a good fit for what you're hoping to find.  (And it is a great way to expand your horizons well beyond the awareness of the most common colleges you have heard your siblings or friends talk about.)

The Columbus Suburban College Fair is one week from today - Sunday, October 13th from 1:00 - 3:30pm at Westerville Central High School.  This is the largest, local fall college fair and a great opportunity for our students.

One important thing for students and parents to know is that we now ask all students to pre-register with your information prior to the college fair.  I promise you, this proces will save you a ton of time at the actual college fair when you don't have to repeatedly write out all of your information for every single college that you are interested in getting more information from - instead you will just be able to text your personal code to them and they will automatically receive your information.

The way you will pre-register is to:
1. Text MASCOT to 75644
2. There will be a reply text.  Complete the student profile at the link provided in the reply text ONE time.

Then, at the college fair, each college will have a 4 digit code and you will text their code to 75644 if you are interested in their college.

Homecoming

This was a fun week of Homecoming festivities (including last night's football win) and it will be topped off tonight with the dance.  Have fun as you get all dressed up and I hope you enjoy the pictures, dinner and the dance.  Most of all, please stay safe and make good choices! I will be at the dance so if you have any problems, don't hesitate to let me know.