College Essay Brainstorming Workshop

For most students, writing your college essay is one of the most stressful aspects of the college application process.  In order to try to help better prepare juniors the counselors will be hosting a brief workshop about selecting a topic for writing your college essay.

The Essay Brainstorming Workshop will take place on Tuesday, April 20th at 10:00am.

We are excited to be able to offer this workshop during the late-start time when younger students will be taking their End of Course exams so that you won't have to miss any classes.  This workshop is just for junior students (and not parents) as it is the student's essay and your voice is what admissions officers want to hear!  This session is optional and is ideal for those students who will be applying to a 4-year college.  (Those who will be starting at a 2 year program like Columbus State will not have to write an essay so you will not need the information covered in this session.)

So that we can distribute materials to students in advance, we ask that you please RSVP using this link:  https://forms.gle/oUhVbB3AaRKfUUft7

Believe me, the essays are such a critical part of the application process that this won't be the only time I talk about them on my blog, but it is also a fun and creative opportunity to introduce yourself to the admissions officers and so it is worth the time you will put into making it a great essay.  I hope you will give up a little bit of your sleeping in time and join us for the workshop.  Plus, since we will be hosting the workshop over zoom, you don't even have to come into the building early.  We will have the zoom link posted on the Counselor website and we will email it to the wscloud email addresses for all registered participants.

April Students of the Month

Even though the Student of the Month ceremonies continue to be held virtually, we are still able to take the time to pause and recognize the contributions of many Kilbourne students each month.  On Friday, WKHS honored the April Students of the Month through a video ceremony.

Student of the Month is a recognition that can only be earned once during a student's time in high school.  This award is given as a way to acknowledge the impact of a student in the classroom or school community.

6 of "my" students were among those honored this week.  Congratulations to: Dilara Alpay, Ijeoma Anaraodo, Julie Barrie, Noah Berman, Gannon Byrne, and Samari DeaVault.  I am proud of each of you and thankful for the ways that you help to make Kilbourne a better place!

Musical - Ranked

I wanted to pause and say GOOD LUCK to all of the students who are involved in this year's musical, Ranked.  I know they have been working really hard and that it will be different participating in a production that will be streamed, but I am excited to watch it.

For all of you who are interested, there will be 2 performances - 1 will be streamed on Friday night and 1 on Saturday night.  

In particular, I want to give a special shout out to "my" students who are among those involved with this year's production including cast members Kya Angle, Ella Blanton, and Gavin Crozier.  And it is not possible to produce a musical without the involvement of a strong crew behind the scenes and two of my students, Rachel Barker and Alyssa Berger are a huge part of this year's crew.

Best of luck to all of you!

Summer School

Did you fail a class during 1st semester?  Are you wanting to try to get ahead in one of your course requirements?  If you answered yes to either of these questions then I strongly encourage you to register NOW for summer school.

Worthington offers summer school opportunities each year with a wide range of opportunities to try to meet your academic goals.  If you failed a class and will be taking it for credit recovery your summer school class will even be free of charge.  This year, summer school will be housed at TWHS and transportation will be available for students who need it.  Most classes will run from June 3rd - June 28th.  There are a limited number of get-ahead courses that are also offered through Worthington summer school and information about those classes and the costs associated with those courses are on the website.  For all Worthington Summer School Credit Recovery related information and to register online, please visit the district website at:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BjSsBG9uHV8xmDEMiBgvCYo4N2kuYG5O-SCGWtfl9qk/edit 

We always get questions about taking online courses or classes in other districts and as long as it is an accredited school this is completely fine.  So, for example, if your parents are divorced and you go to spend the summer with a parent who lives in another state you can take your summer school class at the school near your other parent and then transfer the credit back to us.  Or for those students who plan on traveling a great deal over the summer, taking an online course might be more in line with your needs.  Again, in Worthington we try to be very flexible in helping all students to meet their academic goals so as long as the school you are taking classes from is an accredited school, we will transfer those credits to Worthington.

Students and parents often ask me which online schools they can use and again, if it is accredited it is fine.  I would say that the school we have probably had the most students utilize in the past has been TRECA due to the cost effectiveness of their credits.  But again, that can change from year to year and so I encourage you to search for the schools and programs that will best meet your individual needs.  I do know that as of today TRECA summer school registration has opened so if you were planning to take a TRECA summer school class, please be sure to get signed up for that soon too.  Their website is: https://treca.org/programs/summer-school 

Please, especially if you have failed a class during the 1st semester, get signed up for summer school so that you can stay on track for graduation with your class!

CC+ Application Reminder

Are you planning to take a CC+ class next year?  I know that I received all of your Intent to Participate forms already, but I wanted to make sure that you are taking care of the next step... APPLYING!

Completing the Intent to Participate form is just the first of many steps.  You need to make sure you have applied to the college(s) connected to the classes you will be taking.  Below is a reminder of which college partners with WKHS for which classes and the link to their websites so that you can easily apply.

If you are taking a math class, you need to apply to COTC which is Central Ohio Technical College.  

If you are taking the English, Psychology, Sociology, Government, or Ethics classes, then you need to apply to CSCC.

If you were already taking CC+ classes from that college this year, then you do not need to apply again.  You will still need to make sure that you do the consent forms, but those deadlines are later.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Financial Aid Offers

It can often be challenging for students and families to figure out how to read, understand and compare financial aid award letters from various colleges.  This is because so many colleges have different ways of calculating and reporting different financial obligations.  

One of the most frequent components you'll see is tuition/ fees.  If you will be living on campus there are room/ board costs.  And then also, Cost of Attendance, which is what colleges actually use as the starting point of all of the costs associated with attending their college.  For example, this typically includes books, travel, incidentals and other necessities like laundry costs.  Your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) is another term you might find on your financial aid award letter and this is the amount that the FAFSA indicates that your family can afford to pay.  Sadly, the EFC doesn't typically align with what students and families actually think they can pay... not to mention that many colleges will still leave the families needing to pay even more than their EFC.  See, it's confusing and can be overwhelming, right?

Because making decisions related to college that you will actually be able to afford in the future is essential, there are lots of resources available online focused on understanding the award letters and making comparsions between the packages offered from various schools.  I am going to link to a few below and I hope you will find them helpful.  If you have any questions, please feel free to stop and see me and we can try to figure it out or you can always call the financial aid office at the college for clarification.


Award Letter Comparison Tool

FastWeb Reference Guide for Comparing Offers

How to Decipher a Financial Aid Letter

Busy Week Ahead

Welcome back!  I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing spring break!  I can't wait to hear about it and catch up with all of you.  This will be a busy week ahead as we all readjust to being back at school again and those early mornings in the push through to the end of the year.

A few quick reminders...

Worthington Schools has partnered with Nationwide Children's Hospital to host a Student Vaccination Clinic in Worthington for any interested high school students who are 16 years old or older.  This will take place this Wednesday and Thursday at TWHS and students will be shuttled to TWHS and back from Kilbourne.  Parents should have received information to sign students up for this opportunity, but if you misplaced the communication or have any questions the best people to contact would be Mr. Thomas (Principal), Mrs. Sharon DeSantis (Mr. Thomas' secretary), or Nurse Julie Garner.  I love that Worthington was able to do this for our students because it is taking us one step closer to normalcy in our future.

While we are looking forward to normal, there are so many opportunities that have transitioned and become virtual experiences but are still awesome chances for students and families to enjoy.  For example, this weekend on Friday and Saturday night, the WKHS Theater department musical will be streaming.  Check out the district website to get information on how you can purchase a streaming pass so that you won't miss out on seeing the production that the students have been working so hard to perfect.

For seniors, this will also be the week that the remaining admissions decisions finally get released.  I know this has been a long, stressful wait.  Good luck as you receive those final decisions.  And for all of the other seniors, this week starts off the official countdown to making your final college decision.  I can't wait to hear what you are thinking and how your schools are comparing.  Also, remember that most of the local scholarships whose deadlines haven't already passed have a deadline coming up this week.  Don't miss out on your chance to try to earn free money for college.

I will be out of the building for at least tomorrow morning to help at a few of our other schools in the district, but I can't wait to catch up once we are all back in the building again together.  I have missed you!