We Think We're the Only One...

One of the most common stories we tell ourselves is that we are the only one who thinks or feels the way that we think or feel.  That can be such an isolating and lonely feeling.  And the challenge is that we think we are the only one, but we are not.  You all belong at Kilbourne.  There is a place where you and only you can help fill a need and each of our students help to make WKHS a better place to learn and grow both as students and as people.  But even as I write that, I know there are some of my students who are thinking that they haven't found their place yet.  And I want to stress the word yet in that statement... because there is a place for you here!

One of the best suggestions I have for every student at WKHS is to get involved in sports, clubs, volunteer outreach, or other areas of interest.  This can help connect students to the school and community.  You have special gifts that only you can share and your involvement can make a positive difference!  

At Kilbourne, we are fortunate to have a wide range of opportunities available within the school setting for you to get involved.  There are 29 interscholastic sports, over 40 clubs, the school newspaper, video news team, yearbook and a wide variety of performance groups (choirs, bands, orchestra, and theater).  While there is obviously no shortage of established groups that you can get involved with, if you have other passions that you want to focus on, don't forget that you can also help establish a new club.  As long as you can find a faculty member who is willing to help you with club oversight, Mr. Todd in the athletic office can assist you with the paperwork needed to establish a new club or organization.

For underclassmen, getting involved makes your transition to high school easier because you get to know older students and you find a place where you can belong.  For upperclassmen, being involved gives you the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and to grow in your areas of interest.  (And no, for the record, I don't think you should just get involved because it will look good on your college applications... you should be participating because it is meaningful and important to you, but yes, being involved is a plus for college applications too.)

If you are struggling to find your place, I hope you will stop to see me so that we can review the different groups and organizations that you could try to get connected with and see if that helps to build a positive network for you at WKHS.

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.