Walk In My Shoes

In my position as a school counselor, I have been able to talk with a lot of students and hear a lot of stories about their lives. Some of these stories are funny and some can be very sad. I always get inspired this time of year as the students turn in their essays for the R.K. Thompson scholarship. This scholarship is based on a students self reliance. In other words, how they have made it through some tough struggles in their life and still managed to be an outstanding student and citizen. These students manage to make it against all odds and excel in school and also usually work a lot of hours. I don't know if I would have been able to go through some of the things that they have had to go through and still be successful. I believe we have a lot of great candidates this year and I am excited to see the scholarship winners for 2017.

As I was thinking about the R.K. Thompson scholarship, I couldn't help but think about the students on the other side of the spectrum. I'm talking about the students who look they have it all together. They still have both parents living at home, they have food on the table every night and they drive nice cars or trucks. They usually play in a sport or two and are almost always on the honor roll. I'm sure you are thinking as you read this, "what's wrong with those students, they have it made". Well believe it or not, I also see those students in my office. I have sat across from these students and watched them as they teared up and told me stories about how they are outcast because everyone thinks they have it made. Others think that they are spoiled or that they have a life that everyone would envy. They actually can't make friends because "they just don't fit in". Mr. Unverferth talked about perception in one of his blogs and I can tell you that these students hurt because of the perception that others have of them. As I talk with these students, I hear stories of alcoholism, keeping family secrets, acting like everything is okay and also a lack of love. I hear these students tell me that they have never been told they are loved or even had the chance to hug a parent because of fear.

I really want to mention this because maybe we are all guilty of judging others wrongly. Maybe we tend to think some people have it all together when they really don't. I hope that we will keep this in mind when we encounter someone. I hope we will truly listen to everyone and allow ourselves to be open minded. To take the time to really get to know the people around us. I believe we are all really tired of all the hate in politics and in the world today. We can't change the world overnight but maybe by trying to understand a little bit about our neighbor, we can make our world a little bit better. The old saying really is true, "Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.

Senioritis

Merriam-Webster defines senioritis as "an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades. In other words, a senior in high school who has run out of energy or feels that they don't need to do anymore work because this is their last year. Senioritis is not just a phenomenon, it is real and it happens every year. I certainly understand the idea that you have been in school for thirteen years or more and now you feel that enough is enough. You have served your time and you are ready to get out and move on with your life.

The problem with that type of thinking is that you can cause other problems down the road that you may not have anticipated. A recent article in the Huffington Post (read here) wants students to know that colleges do look at all four years of high school grades - including your full senior year. A college will request and look at your final grades. They state that "a significant grade dip second semester is a huge red flag - is the student really committed? Can he or she follow through? Maybe this student isn't mature enough after all to handle the demands of a college curriculum."

Colleges can also rescind acceptances. This can be based on your GPA, final semester grades or even social media post. Colleges do have the right to take away their offer if the student does not hold up their academic responsibilities. You also have to consider your financial aid rewards. Some of the financial aid may be merit based, so if you bomb the fourth quarter of your senior year, you may lose your merit scholarships.

This doesn't just apply to students going to college. Many of our students will be going on to the workforce and use their skills that they picked up while at Vantage. I can tell you first hand that the employees WILL call our school and want to talk to Mr. Verhoff, Mrs. Hall, your instructors or myself. They will ask us about attendance, attitude, grades and our thoughts about hiring you. You want to make a good impression all the way to the finish line. This is how we will remember you.

In conclusion, I hope you understand how important it is for you to work hard all the way to graduation. It is only about 61 days away. You have gone so far, don't quit now. Find a way to fire yourself up and then make that final push. You will be glad you did.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you are constantly reminded by friends and/or family members that you are important and that you matter. Valentine's Day is often a holiday that is dominated by commercials encouraging people to buy special cards, jewelry, flowers or candy, but really those items are not what love is all about.  Love is about caring for the people in your life and putting their needs above your own.  Love is also about respecting one another!  February is Teen Dating Violence awareness month.  I hope that you all know and realize that you deserve to be in healthy and respectful relationships.  It is important to speak up and set healthy boundaries in your relationships and to seek help if that is not happening in your life or the lives of those you care about.  Want to learn more about teen dating violence?  Check out this website - http://www.loveisrespect.org/ - they have tons of great resources and information. Try the quizzes at their website, they may help you.

So Many Choices

Last week we held our annual sophomore visitation. I always enjoy this day and being able to speak with the sophomores and asking them about their future plans and interest. I find it interesting that when asked about what career they are looking into, a lot of them aren't really sure yet. I wouldn't expect them to be settled on their career at this point in their life but I would hope they would be able to tell me their interests and things that excite them.  Trying to decide what you want to be when you grow up can be difficult.  It isn’t exactly realistic to think that you – 14 – 18 year old students – would know the precise career that will make you happy and fulfilled in the future.  The data on how many careers a person will hold in their lifetime is difficult to track, but most statistics indicate that on average you will have 7 different jobs in your adult working life.  It seems pretty clear to me that most of those adults never imagined changing jobs so many times and if they couldn’t predict what job they would want in their careers as adults it isn’t necessarily realistic to think that you will know exactly what you want to do when you are still in high school.

You don’t know about fields that you haven’t been exposed to yet – how could you know if you’d like Precision Machining or Health Careers when those are areas you haven’t studied.  That is why it is important to take opportunities to be curious, to explore, to learn, to ask questions, to observe and to find out more about anything which interests you.  Seek opportunities to shadow, interview career professionals, volunteer, or work a part time job – even if it isn’t in a field even remotely interesting to you because it will still help you to learn workforce skills.

What you can know though are the characteristics and skills that YOU possess which are YOUR strengths and could help you create happiness and fulfillment in your selected jobs.  These personal strengths do not rely on a particular job and they will cross over to any jobs that you have throughout your lifetime.

So how do you figure out your strengths?  You can always do self-reflection about what you believe to be your greatest strengths.  You can ask your family members and friends about what they believe to be your greatest strengths.  Or you could do assessments about your strengths.  Gallup has a book called Strengths Finder 2.0 which has an online assessment that allows you to complete a questionnaire and ultimately gives you your top themes about your individual strengths.  This information can then be utilized to help provide insight into the types of career fields which could work with your strengths.  Unfortunately there is a cost for the book and the assessment, but if it is an area of interest it might be worth considering.  Additionally there are free online assessments to find personal strengths such as this one. Click here

Ultimately, I hope that you see career searching as a fun and exciting opportunity rather than a stressful task to be added to your “to do” list.  Remember, every day you are preparing yourself for your future.  You are learning and applying skills that will help you for the rest of your life like listening, organization, problem solving, critical thinking, analysis, time management, taking personal responsibility, completing quality work, meeting deadlines, working with others (including those you might not like) and so many more.  There is no doubt that you have a bright future ahead and you will be prepared no matter what (or how many) career(s) you have in the future.

Here are some additional career related articles that might interest you:

Instead of focusing on passion, focus on consistency


There is good money to be made in non-college careers