What is College GO! Week?
College GO! week is a part of Learn More Indiana, a national initiative of the American College Application Campaign. So, every year, Learn More Indiana encourages schools to educate students on college and career, and just get students thinking about what they want to do after high school. A bunch of colleges participate and offer free applications. That’s probably one of the best parts of this week: you can apply to this whole big list of schools with a waived application fee.
How did our school get involved with College GO! Week, and how long has it been around?
We have done this as long as I’ve been here. It’s just a good opportunity for counselors to get into the classrooms and talk to students about college and careers, because that’s one of the parts of our job: college and career exploration, as well as social and academic counseling. It’s just a good opportunity to get in classrooms, do activities and get kids thinking about what they want to do after high school.
How do students usually benefit from it?
Seniors benefit because they can get free applications, so it’s nice to be able to apply to a few places for free. It’s also a good opportunity for juniors to realize they’re getting ready to apply and also thinking about where. It’s helpful for freshmen to start planning because it feels so far away, but it goes really fast, and you become a senior really quickly. There are a lot of classroom resources and things on Learn More Indiana that can help us help students to start exploring.
Can you explain what counselors do when you guys visit classrooms for the week?
With the freshmen this week, we completed four-year plans. Those are actually required, so we thought going into the classroom would be a good opportunity to get those done without having to pull kids out of class. Sophomores, we are having a GPA college admissions sorting game, which helps students learn about what it takes to be a good college applicant to make their application stand out and to help with admissions and scholarship money. We also have other learning activities in Xello. With seniors, we’re going to have an alumni panel where kids talk about college, applications, scholarships and just anything about college.
How do teachers and counselors work together during College GO! Week?
All of us counselors sit down and we plan out what we’re gonna do for the week. Then, we talk to teachers and they’re always willing to let us come in and talk to students about this because they realize that it’s very important, too. A lot of teachers make it part of their lesson.
What other resources at our school can students utilize to benefit them?
We use Xello now. It used to be Naviance, but now it’s Xello and everybody’s starting to get familiar with it. There’s a lot of really great college career exploration you can do within Xello. So, you can do that on your own, or you can come in and meet with your counselor. We can talk about your interests in what you want to do, give you some ideas and point you in different directions. If you’re interested in college, we can talk about colleges that fit what you want to do, or if it’s an apprenticeship or trade school.
