here may take if you are feeling uneasy about the transition into secondary education this is definitely the episode for you thank you for being with here with me today miss this stuff and thank you i appreciate the opportunity ok tell me a little bit about your job what do you do here for p sure i have two main roles the first role is and i'm an administrator within the counseling department and that's to help grow to grow our counseling department continue the good things that are happening in that office my second role is to is to grow the college and career planning that's taking place in the future is such an important topic and there's a lot of questions that go along with that that what do i do how do i get there so that's what i'm here for ok what do you have to do a p t h s what do you hope to change and develop in the school i would say that i was looking to really just grow what is already happening here students are really excited about their futures and thinking about absolutely thinking about what it is that they're going to do and how they're going to get there and so i want students to think about what the end goal is what do they plan to do when they leave here and then let's work work backwards to really plan how to get there ok how do students who come from you whenever they want to come talk to you and ask you questions about college and i'm sure so there's multiple ways you can always email me if you have a question and also stop by the counseling office and you can talk with mrs bennett or ms heinzman at the counseling office and they can set up an appointment on my calendar as well ok what's the number one thing that you get from students like is it that scared to go to college is it transitioning i think it's just an overwhelming experience to think about what it is that that they're going to do a lot of students have an idea that either they're going to go to college or maybe they're going to go into the military and so the idea is they are it's just a matter of where is it they're going to go or if they're going to college what major are they going to have a lot of students are undecided so my my role is really to help to make sure that whatever the path is that a student chooses that it's the right fit for them and then we start to plan and organize how we're going to get there ok a lot of my peers actually have talked to me they feel that they're undecided they go into college  like don't know what they're going to do how do you broach that what do you tell them i would say that first of all take a deep breath and it's ok going in undecided is not necessarily a bad thing it depends on the program that you're looking at or the school that you're looking to attend a lot of schools have general ed classes that students can take to get a better feel for what they have to offer at the campus whether it's introduction courses to really learn about a specific major sometimes that can be helpful and i would also advise to go on to not beyond utilize a lot of our interest inventories that are there to help explore different career clusters and point you in the direction of specific majors as well ok what else can  looking at different careers looking at different colleges one of the resources that's on there that's really great if you're college bound is the super match and you can go on and answer different questions and it'll point you in the right direction of some sort some schools to look at that you might not have thought of before so that's awesome ok how about kids who are not going to college who want to pursue something else what do you how do you do a deal with them compare those i'm one who wants to go to college absolutely i would say that again it's all about the right fit so ask questions about what it is that they want from their future what do they consider success to be and we talk about ways to get there whether it be going to a vocational school and getting skills whether it be going right into an employment opportunity whether it be going into a branch of the military there's lots of different avenues to explore and in the right choices there ok what's the number one piece of advice that you would give students who are going somewhere else after this the first one to take a deep breath there are there are the right the right path is out there for everybody and i would say once you start to think about what it is that you want to do if you do have a plan then start to plan backwards as to how you're going to get there set goals for yourself start to organize create lists utilize navi outs as much as you can utilize your counseling department to teachers around your peers there's lots of different resources available and we're here to help when do you feel students should start utilizing these resources they do said like seniors studios or do you say like all through high school when you start thinking about your future that's when you planned and hopefully sooner than later incoming freshman is the time to start thinking about your future going on to no beyond utilizing interest inventories asking you answering questions about your interests and abilities and start to explore it's never too early to explore ok so with that said how how do you feel that your job now is very important to the school i would say that i have the opportunity to take the time to meet with college representatives that come in and have conversations with them learning really about what they have to offer has each individual institution is different i would say i have the ability to to meet with students and to grow what's already happening out of the counseling department with the use of not vance i can take the time to work with students individually or in groups to really promote what we have in the resources that that we currently have i've started tweeting on our twitter account and twitter feed so that's another opportunity for our students and parents to  to really learn about the future planning and the college planning process the career planning process as well so that's another another avenue to explore that's great you said you work with students and groups what do you mean by that so if there are a group of students that are starting to have similar concerns or similar needs to come up then i can get them together and work with them as a group as a whole rather than just individually ok do they organize that or do you organize that and how does that happen we have yet to organize that officially thing that can take place and that will be i see that more in our future but can happen and i used to any time as i see students starting to come for similar things and have similar interests then we can get those students together that's awesome what about whatever colleges visit here do you work with that and how do those work i know a lot of students are trying to get out of the story so there are different needs to come and visit with a college representative so we've had over fifty college representatives come so far this year this year was awesome absolutely and so if you're interested in seeing a specific college or somebody that's come and you're just not sure about their program or what they have to offer you can see that information on the high school website you can also go into sunder the colleges i'm applying to or the college some interested page that tab and see the college visits and if you're interested in seeing a college representative then you would just click on that tab click on that link and you'd be able to sign up for that time that the college representative is coming in ok is that usually directed towards like careers or is that directed towards like the schools so so go in absolutely and that's a great question that's actually mostly directed towards the colleges right now although we do have some special guest speakers coming on november ninth and we have a navy seal that's coming in the morning who was a former navy seal he did multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan ok and he is also a dual graduate student at harvard and university of penn so he has a lot of a bunch of different a lot to offer so if there's a tenth eleventh or twelfth grade student that's interested in attending that that'll be first period on nov ninth ok so it's just temple of the twelve for all the college representatives that come here or is it just that one for college representatives we usually try to focus with eleventh and twelfth grade students ok however if there's a younger student that really has some interest to talk to your counselor first and we can talk about whether it's an appropriate time as the college representatives are usually talking about the admissions process which for ninth and tenth graders it's typically it could change by the hand they start to apply ok so another visitor we have coming on november ninth in the afternoon is somebody that's going to be talking about stem careers and government information technology so if there's any tenth eleventh or twelfth grader interested in learning more about what you can do with a degree in information science or computer science that would be a great one to attend as well ok well that's also ok we're actually going to take a very well be right back my grandfather served in world war two spending time with him were the best memories of my life i became a physician in v a because of my grandfather so i can help others like him i can't imagine working with better doctors or more dedicated staff fulfilling my life's mission with the help of my team and thanks to these veterans i'm proud to be a doctor and be proud to honor my grandfather every day search careers to find out more here something you bet you didn't know nearly half of all cancers can be prevented that's right fifty percent mostly by making small everyday changes in your diet and controlling your weight walking more eating less and eating foods that help you and your family to seriously reduce the risk of cancer and of course by not smoking visit the cancer prevention together we can website and get a free thirty day planner filled with tips recipes stats and more protecting your family go to prevent are both standardized tests that help to determine if a student is a college ready and it really helps they missions team at a count at a at a college to help determine if a student they look at those scores and that helps them to determine whether a student would attend their school or not that's one of the pieces within the holistic approach that they utilize ok what's the difference between the s a t versus so the  that you can take with us ace students tend to some students do good with both and and some students do better on one versus the other ok that would be why we recommend to take both tests because if it's a college is looking for a score it doesn't matter to them whether you turn in an essay to score or any c t score so take both of them and then turn in the best of the the two scores ok if kids are going to pick one over the other would it be based on like what career they're planning on going into it really doesn't have anything to do with what your choices are more so what you feel what kind of test you do better with so explore both of them but it would be my recommendation to to try both tests ok and the best time to do that is typically your junior year in the spring time in the the winter coming in the spring for the s a t s we do offer the s a t s here in march in a c t s here in april certainly if you want to take a test prior to that you can march in april gives you plenty of time to get those scores back your junior year and decide if you want to retake either test or one of those tests ok based on the scores you can focus on one of the tests if you like and then really prepare and plan in preparation to do better and that the one test that you choose over the other ok to take it a second time i know a lot of students and teachers i've talked to they say to wait and not take the s a t s and tell you finish like you're a p either a p laying there whatever you take junior year and they say to wait until after you finish the course and take the a p test for that and then take the go on and take the s a t test what would you recommend have you heard that or that just rumor i would say that that any course that you take especially in english is going to help you  with your testing i would recommend that if you plan on taking a test more than one time to look at taking the test in the spring ok and then that'll give you plenty of time to prepare and there's different ways to do that with the s a t s there's k about that absolutely it is a free service that they're really targets to the individual student what they need to work on that will give them their strengths their limitations and really focus in on the limitations  and provide different practice with that because the research with that is that the students that have spent twenty hours on that raise their s a t s scored one hundred fifteen points so for free program that you can do in between events that you have in the evening or on the weekends it's been really fantastic a c t also has a program that we're we are just learning about that's very similar to khan academy that that focuses in on what you what your strengths and limitations are you have the opportunity to enter in your a c t scores and then it'll provide practice for what you really need based on what you see and the differences in the scores between kids who take classes have you talk to any students who have taken like i know there's like huntington and stuff like that like do you see it would you recommend taking classes like that or do you think that com academy is league is up to par right i would say that it really depends on the individual student and what you're looking for if you're a student that does well with with an individualized plan on the computer and into going at your own pace check out khan academy it's free and it doesn't hurt if you're somebody that needs somebody you know right there with you to give you advice in and provide information to you then certainly another tutoring agency outside of the school is something to explore as  just recently offered khan academy after school in the library lab and so that is we are working after school until three thirty so there's always somebody available in the library lab up until this weekend actually until saturday november fourth ok is when one of the s a t dates is and so will be in the library a lot of them and we hope to continue that in the spring time before our next wave of the march  how about students who are not planning on going to college just say they're going into the military do they take these tests or do they not i don't think it's it's necessarily a bad thing to do to take the tests because it gives you an idea of what your strengths and limitations are and regardless of whether you're going to college or not everybody can can learn from that man regardless of going to college we're all lifelong learners we continue to learn whether we're in college or not absolutely so i believe it's  it's a good idea to take it plus you never know when your players are going to change so it's easier to to move forward than backwards ok some of our thoughts and contending with students who are going into the mill terry we're seeing a spike in the amount of students who are planning on going into the military especially recently what do you see that their future plans are like what to do after college where they go from here sure there's all different branches of the military that that students are interested in and if there is a student that has a question about that they can stop by the counseling office and we do have recruiters if they ever want to talk to a recruiter about that they can they can e mail them they can come in talk to the recruiter in our office and they can learn more information there  but as far as enlisting in the military that's an option there's always national guard which is an option are o t c and all of those are ways that can help pay for college so for some students it's a really good option  ok how about workshop wednesdays i heard that's a new thing here it is a is it is also about it absolutely so our counseling department recognizes that there's a lot of need especially when it comes to the college application process it can be overwhelming there's a of pieces to it and so one of the ways that we are trying to help with that is offering our workshop wednesday and that is during our lunch periods wednesdays there will be a counselor available in room one nineteen so any questions that you have and it can be anything related to counseling it doesn't have to be just college applications but that's seems to be what season we're in right now yeah so any part of the process whether it be with a common app whether it be through now beyon d family connections whether it be a specific question about an essay or a school they can just drop by in room one night scene and a counselor will be available to assist with that ok so it is a counselor that runs it it is like bouncing questions back and forth absolutely so any type of need that you have you can just stop and if you didn't have time let's say that you don't have a study hall and some students don't have a free period and in and there they don't want to give up one of their class times  come and talk to a counselor if they have a lunchtime they can come down ok and take advantage of that ok what about i know college applications and college essays are big thing right now oh really what do you think is there anything here that we do that can help students and  i would have to to really talk up the the writing lab there it is a great opportunity by our students for our students to have some peer helpers to help with college essays whether it be to brainstorm to add it to just get a second opinion ok because college essays can be very very important when you're in the college application process and if you're looking at a school that that might be a little bit more difficult to get into that and that essay becomes your voice and it's a very important piece of that application process so it's important to look at the essay to really talk about who you are and go into the writing lab allows you a second set of ears or eyes to really see if you're getting the right message across ok and there's it's all students know teachers and they help you with writing so the so there are peers that can help there's also always teachers available i know a lot of teachers will help if you have questions we have a very supportive supportive staff here so just about anybody available in this building would help with that ok how about letters of recommendation how does that work here at the school so with letters a recommendation you do go through to make that request for your letter of recommendation and what i would recommend without using recommendation to anything is that you find teachers who really know you who can let readers see who you are as a person ok so you're looking at the teacher that you made a connection with you know sophomore year junior year somebody that that you feel like could really shine the light on the best qualities about you absolutely also spending time with your counselor is very important too because most schools require a  letter from the counselor as well ok so that's important are those the requirement for schools or is it just something that you would like drawing we recommend each school is different so it it all depends on where you're going to school so  where you want to apply some schools require up to three letters a recommendation some don't require any at all they might just say it's recommended certainly if it's recommended i would i would treat it as a requirement yes it's certainly not going to hurt you but it just depends on the school that you're applying to and you can use an audience to help you organize that through nabih onto you can learn which schools require have the different requirements ok is everyone audience like do is everyone set up on their own get or students who may not be yes once you enter your freshman year you are set up an audience and so if you ever have any problems with that just email your counselor stop by the counseling office and we'll be happy to help you with that absolutely how about fafsa i've heard a little bit about posts can you get stuff that's that's the free application for for federal student aid and that is an application that comes open october first so our seniors and senior families are really in the midst of that right now applying for that and that's an opportunity to get different different aid whether it be through grants  different types of loans and things and also free money and then chile if you qualify that that is a good opportunity to apply for that whether you think that your family would qualify or not it's certainly  should do absolutely it's free and sometimes there are schools that will give you money just to apply what even if you didn't qualify so it's always a good opportunity to to take advantage of is there anything else that students can do absolutely with fafsa that can be a little bit difficult to navigate through some of the questions ok so this thursday we do have a workshop available where somebody will be be here at the school  for thirty five thirty and six thirty so three different times and families and seniors can bring in all of their tax information from last year and they'll be able to complete their the fafsa with the assistance of somebody that that will be able to help them with all of their questions is there anything else that you would definitely recommend students when it comes to financial planning with financial planning it's really talking with your families to see you know what you have available website that you would be able to explore ok well that's awesome ok well looks like all we have time for today thank you so much for joining us i know i learned a lot and it was definitely a pleasure to learn about your ne