Written by: Jon Watson, High School Counselor, A-K
Attention students and families! Your D’Evelyn Counselors are here to support your students through anything and everything that pertains to academics, relationship struggles, emotional distress, organization, career and college readiness, and navigating this crazy start to a school year. Counselors are always available to meet with students either in-person, through phone or email, or through the google platforms of chat, meet, or hangouts. Now that students are coming back into the building we want to make sure they know they can always come down to see us if needed. We also want them to know that even if they are not in the building we will provide all of the same services just online. Change can be difficult for a lot of people, and this school year is a change we have not seen before. We want to support you all during this time, and we are always willing to try our best to meet your needs. Our contact information can be found on our website and in our google classrooms. If we are busy when students try to come see us, just set up an appointment with our registrar to get on our schedule. If there is ever an emergency, students and families can go to any of our counselors for assistance. We know this is going to be a great school year, and it will certainly be an adventure. We are all in this together! Google Classroom The counseling department has created google classrooms for every grade level. We are utilizing these classrooms to communicate with the students on a whole-group level about activities happening around counseling, about tasks they will need to complete, and any updates. We encourage all students to check their counseling google classrooms at least once or twice a week. Right now, we have information about college visits, boys and girls mentoring, and videos on how to access certain materials. This is going to be one of the main sources of communication for counselors to students throughout the semester and possibly the year. We will also be holding office hours for students to connect with us regarding questions to materials we post in the classroom every Friday from 11 am – noon. The link for those virtual office hours is the main link for the classroom. Students can also reach out to their counselor for more information. Virtual College Week D’Evelyn will still be hosting a College Day this year, however, it will look different than it has in the past. Our College Day will turn into a Virtual College Week with a few online virtual activities occurring on specific days. The Virtual College Week will begin on Monday, September 14th. We encourage students to wear their college t-shirts both days they come to campus. We will be holding two different raffles during the week. Our first raffle will be for students who submit pictures to the D’Evelyn Counseling Instagram page wearing their college t-shirts. If students submit pictures wearing their college t-shirts they will automatically be entered into the raffle. Our second raffle will have a college question of the day students can fill out. We will post a google form with two questions students will answer. They get one entry for every correct answer. Both raffles are completely optional to participate in, but we encourage students and teachers to participate in both. More information about each event will be released towards the end of next week. We will also have a “Virtual College Fair” this year. This will be a document with information from all of the institutions that were slated to attend out college fair this fall. Their page will have information about the institution, a virtual visit link, and contact information for that specific college representative. We will be creating a College Day page on our website, as well as sharing it out on multiple platforms (Jag Tracks, Naviance emails, etc.) that will contain all of the information from breakout sessions, to the keynote speaker, and any additional information that comes up throughout the week. Our breakout sessions this year are:
College Visits The infamous D’Evelyn College Visits will begin next week. College visits are when admissions representatives from institutions all around the country come and meet personally with our students. We highly encourage students to attend these visits, especially for institutions that they are really interested in. The admissions representative who comes to meet our students is the same person who reads their applications when they apply. This is a great way for students to stand out in the college application process. College representatives are always looking for students who are interested in their institutions, and for students who show that interest for multiple years. College Visits will look different this year than they have in the past. We typically have multiple institutions coming to our campus each day. This year we will only have two visits per day, and they will all be virtual. Students, during 7th hour, will need to use their chromebooks, laptops, or phones to access these virtual meetings. The links for the meetings are provided in their counseling google classroom and in Naviance. Students will also need to register for each visit on Naviance. Directions about how to sign up for college visits are posted in their counseling google classrooms. This is going to be a different process, and we want to be able to support students as much as possible. We already have over 40 institutions signed up to visit with our students, and we want students to attend these visits so we don’t lose this special privilege with the representatives. Here is the link the google doc that contains all of the visits, dates and times of the visits, and the links students need to click on to join those meetings. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q3K-AZI1ITXJdEpGpEPf6D5iexv02xkRV8Bw7x6ixtg/edit?usp=sharing THESE MEETINGS ARE FOR STUDENTS ONLY. However, we would love for you to encourage your students to attend, and provide them with any questions you may have. Seniors Now that school is back in session the time is going to start flying by, even if it seems that it is moving slowly, deadlines will start to creep up on you. Ms. Harrington and Mr. Watson are here to support you through the college application process, scholarships, and any post-secondary aspirations you may have. We are holding office hours every single Friday from 11 am – noon during first semester. That’s right…EVERY FRIDAY. Our goal is to support you and provide you with as much information as possible to make sure your college application process, military process, or any other post-secondary thoughts go as smoothly as possible. In our most recent office hours, Friday September 4th, we had a total of 7 students hop on to ask questions. We were able to provide them with tips and strategies on how to work through their applications. Even if you do not have any questions in mind please look to attend one of the office hours just to learn more information. The first major application deadline is October 13th. That is the Colorado Free Application Day! This is the day you can submit all of your Colorado Universities applications for free. Most applications cost around $50-$60 to apply, so submitting applications on this day will help you out greatly. This is a little over a month away, and we promise it will sneak up on you if you are not prepared. You may also set up individual meetings with your counselor if you have questions about the college application process if you do not want to attend an office hour meeting. We will do our best to accommodate with your schedule. We look forward to working with you all, and do not hesitate to reach out if you need anything! |
Jon Watson Archives
April 2022
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