Your Freshman Academy counselors have been busy in Quarter One!
In September, Mr. Hawkins and Mrs. Artis completed classroom guidance sessions with all first-time freshmen. Mr. Hawkins went into his English/Academic Literacy classes to meet with his students. Mrs. Artis used her Health/PE classes. In our presentations, we discussed the typical annual pitfalls that cause freshmen to stumble or fail courses (missing homework, truancy, disorganization, conflict resolution, time management issues, etc.), and strategies students might use to avoid these pitfalls. We also discussed what support services are available to students (counseling services, tutoring and academic support, etc.), and how students may access that support. We plan to meet with classroom groups at least 2 more times this year as a convenient, practical way to dispense bulk information.
In early October, under our facilitation, first-semester Freshman Focus students each created an account with www.cfnc.org. CFNC is a fantastic resource for college planning, career search activities, financial aid information, etc. Please ask your child for his/her user name and password so you can help them keep up with it and better enable them to access their accounts over the next three and a half years. (We asked them to record this info in their planners.) Mr. Hawkins and Mrs. Artis led students through a 45-minute session creating the account and exploring careers and college options in NC.
Also in October, students enjoyed an interactive presentation given in all 8 Freshman Focus classes (and will be given again next semester to students who are not yet in Freshman Focus). We were approached recently by some representatives of a new student organization at Duke University called Duke College Mentors. The organization is run by current Duke undergraduates whose aim and focus is to work with local high school students and promote higher education and college planning. On October 16th, six current Duke students spoke to our Freshman Focus students about the great value in planning to go to college, specifically the average salary differential between high school graduates and college graduates, common careers that require a 4-year college degree, the salary/career advantages to post-graduate degrees, as well as college lifestyle topics (dorm life, dining hall food, daily class schedules and work-loads, etc.). Students were attentive and were able to ask questions of the college students. Two of the Duke students were even former JHS students. It was pretty neat to have our students look up and see college students that were in their shoes just a few years ago at JHS.
We are currently working to secure our annual university field trip, during which we will tour a local campus, hear a presentation from an admissions counselor, and participate in a Q&A presentation with current college students. Details are forthcoming about dates and location.
Sometimes, we wonder whether or not high school freshmen can really connect their work in 9th grade with its impact on the rest of their lives. Through our Freshman Focus course, creating accounts in CFNC, presentations by guest speakers like these Duke students, and our impending university field trip, we hope we are helping make those connections occur just a little bit more quickly and tangibly.
If you are not yet a part of your Freshman Academy counselor’s team e-group, please contact us. We send e-mail updates in bulk form to parents of a particular Freshman Academy team at least once a week. This includes field trip information, progress report/report card reminders, teacher announcements about tests and projects, etc. Please send your counselor and e-mail with your child’s name and Freshman Academy team and request your inclusion with the e-group. Maybe you have already requested to be added and have not received our e-mails yet. We do receive a lot of bounce-backs as many e-mail filters block us as spam, since we send information in bulk. Please make sure your spam filter will accept our correspondence prior to requesting to be placed in the e-group. Or it could be that your e-mail address was entered with a typo- please just e-mail the counselor the information listed above and we can check for you.
Have a wonderful fall and winter! Check back with this page in Quarter 2 for updates!!
