Pre-ACT Registration

Registration for the Pre-ACT is now open!

There are a few things to know that might help you decide if you are interested in taking the Pre-ACT or not.

1. The test is open to sophomores and juniors only.

2. There is a cost to sign up for the Pre-ACT.  The charge is $20.

3. The Pre-ACT is the practice test for the ACT.  (This year, Juniors will be taking the SAT at WKHS for free in March.  If you decide you want to take the ACT, you will have to sign up and take that on a Saturday national test date instead.)

4. The Pre-ACT is a paper/ pencil test. (The actual ACT is offered both paper/ pencil or digitally, but more students and more national testing sites administer it as a paper/ pencil test so that is what we are doing for the practice test too.)

5. Taking both the PSAT and the Pre-ACT is a great way for students to experience both tests and be able to compare them to see which one gives you a better score. If you know which test you feel more comfortable with (and which one you scored better on for the practice tests) that can help you decide which one you would want to focus your test prep on for the actual ACT/ SAT admissions tests.

6. The Pre-ACT will be offered to Kilbourne students on Friday, October 30th.

7. The PreACT also includes a career component to help students identify career interests and potential career fields to explore.

8. There is a LIMIT to the number of students who can take the Pre-ACT at Kilbourne on October 30th! Space will be limited to the first 200 registrants. (This is important because, for comparison sake, we have over 400 students signed up to take the PSAT. So, we have half of the number of seats available for the Pre-ACT which means if you are interested in signing up you will want to register soon.)

9. Registration is completed through your MyPaymentsPlus account.

If you have any questions or need any help getting signed up for the Pre-ACT, don't hesitate to stop by and see your counselor!

Ask.

Tomorrow at school the counselors will be in the Commons and in the front of the school to participate in a Suicide Prevention Awareness day. We are hopeful that all students will join us!

This month is Suicide Prevention Month. This link takes you to a short 3 minute video clip with information related to suicide. It's intended audience is for the parents of teens, but it applies to kids too. I am going to ask you to stop now and watch it. Please.

We recognize that the video is simple, but wow does it hit on so many of the key messages related to suicide. Most of all, the importance of asking. The feeling of being alone with your thoughts, your feelings, your loneliness, your hurt, your pain, and not being able to see any way out is a key risk factor for teens having thoughts of suicide. So ask. Ask the people around you, "Are you ok?" Ask, "Are you having thoughts of killing yourself?" Ask, "How are you feeling?" And then listen.

If the answer is yes, then it is time to act. Get your family member or friend support and help. Something needs to change in his/ her life so that they don't have to feel this way. And if they say no, but your gut instinct is that something is wrong - trust yourself and still seek support. You know the people in your life best. You know when something is wrong with your friend. You know when they are hurting or not acting like themselves. There is never any harm in pulling more support into their life... and it may truly end up saving their life!

If someone is in immediate danger of taking his/ her own life, please call 911 or go directly to an Emergency Room. If you aren't sure of the level of danger, you can also call or text 988 which is the Suicide and Crisis Hotline. It is available free of charge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you have concerns about a friend while you are at school, please come and see your counselor or one of the other counselors at WKHS. We are here to help! What you and your friend are going through matters to us and you could be helping to save their life by speaking up. And tomorrow is the perfect day to ask, to engage in the conversation to help prevent suicide. We can all make a difference by joining forces together and showing up for those around us.

Financial Aid Night

Seniors, you and your parents have probably already heard that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will release for you to begin completing on October 1st.

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting coming up on Wednesday, September 30th at 7:00pm in the WKHS Auditorium. We are fortunate enough to have Faith Phillips, a financial aid director for OSU Newark and COTC, sharing her expertise with our parents and students. She always has useful insight and is able to present it in engaging ways that will help you in completing your financial aid application.

Because the FAFSA tends to create a lot of questions, this is likely an important night for senior families - even if you have older siblings who have been through the FAFSA process before. We hope you will make plans to join us on September 30th!

Interim Reports

Can you believe we are at the half-way point of the first quarter? In many ways it feels like we just got started. As you are hopefully aware, you and your parents have the opportunity to check your grades on an ongoing basis. But, if you haven't started checking your greats yet this year, since we are about halfway through, this is the time when you are able to get a good feel for how you are doing in each of your classes. We strongly suggest that you take a look at your grades and make sure you are on track for the quarter.

As a reminder to you and your parents, Infinite Campus is the system that has your schedule, attendance, grades, and transcripts. Your teachers are updating their grades at least once a week so that you can check and have an ongoing update for how you are doing in each class. This continual information provides you with the chance to celebrate if you are doing well and to identify what you might need to change if you are not meeting your own expectations for the goals you had set at the beginning of the school year.

Infinite Campus has a free app that is very easy for students and parents to use and is a great tool for staying up to date on your progress. If you are interested in downloading and using the free Infinite Campus app, you will need to know that the District Code is: YCWTRL

Ohio Direct Admissions

As seniors, one of the most common steps that students complete is applying to colleges and then waiting to see if the colleges will accept you. This year, for the first time ever, Ohio has introduced a Direct Admissions program. What is this? It is essentially a flipping of the script.

With Ohio Direct Admissions, Ohio colleges will reach out to Ohio seniors with offers of admission and then the Ohio seniors who receive these offers will choose which ones to accept for ongoing interest.

It is an interesting concept that has been introduced with success in several other states already. Students are under no obligation or commitment to say yes to any of the colleges that offer you admissions without your application.

In Ohio there are 9 main campuses of public colleges, 27 private colleges, and all of the public branch campuses and community colleges that will be participating in the Ohio Direct Admission program.

If students do not want to have their high school data to be considered for matching with the colleges, you have the option to have your information withheld by Opting Out. The deadline to do this is this Friday, September 25th.

Check out the Ohio Department of Higher Education website for more information about Ohio's Direct Admission program.

Welcome to Worthington

Each year we are lucky enough to welcome students who are moving into the WKHS area as new students. This morning we hosted a welcome breakfast to make sure that all of our new students knew how thankful we are to have them at Kilbourne. It was fun to hear a little bit about the schools where students have attended previously and the things that they like about WKHS already... for example, the food, friendly students, and later start time are definite favorites. The new students come from as close as cities around Ohio to many different states and countries from around the world. Kilbourne is better because of each student who walks our halls and we hope you will join us in welcoming these new students if you see them in your classes or lunch periods.

That's So You

Writing your college essay is often one of the most stressful aspects of the college application for students, but it is actually one of my favorite parts because it is your opportunity to shine. The college essay allows you the opportunity to showcase who you are and all of the wonderful traits that you will bring to your future college community.

All too often students will tell us that they don't have anything unique or that makes them stand out from all of the other applicants, but I promise you that is WRONG! Each of you is different from all of your other classmates. You have your own activities that you enjoy, ways to relieve stress, things that make you smile or laugh and ways of thinking that are completely your own. Those differences may seem small or insignificant to you, but it is what makes you YOU and therefore it is precisely what the colleges want to learn about you in your essay.

In my family, we often laugh about "that's so you" stories. Those little things that each member of our family thinks or does that is "so them." Taking a walk for fun in below zero weather, breaking out in random song, making us laugh with silly words - all of these are but a few glimpses into the little elements that I love dearly about various members of my family. And my guess is, you could imagine why you might want to know more about them from just that simple snippet of information. Your essay is a chance for you to highlight one or more of your classic "so you" stories.  What are things you have done that are quintessentially you? If you are struggling to figure out what all this might include, don't hesitate to ask your parents, siblings, or friends to help you think of the things that you have done that they thought to themselves, "yep, that is so ___ (you)."

That's so you stories can make easy college essays because you get to highlight some aspect of your life that is unique to you and then as you reflect on it, the colleges end up learning about YOU which is their entire goal.