Consultation Case

Students who have college attendance as a goal prior to 10th grade are 21% more likely to meet their planned goals than students who consider college after 10th grade. From my experience, in the two years I have worked and interacted with students from all walks of life, I strongly believe that for students who are at risk, they need to have that college goal in mind by 7th grade. For this reason, I feel that in district 205 we should begin their outreach and implement strategies to reach these students in middle school. The time spent on this outreach does not need to be a strenuous commitment. If possible, having a college awareness group every other week for the students would be extremely beneficial, and would put the possibilities and importance of college in their minds at an earlier age. I started working with a group of 8th grade students sporadically last year, and met with them throughout the entire year. The progress that these students have made over the past two years has been remarkable. This interaction should be something that district 205 start to work on before the school year even begins. This idea will help the districts visualization as a whole, because students will be knowledgeable about the process at a much earlier age. If we are able to develop a relationship with a student at this important age in their life, it would make the transition to high school that much smoother.

"Life is not about starting many things. It's about finishing every single thing you've started". As we know, college access is not the major problem in education today. The more concerning problem is the number of students who are actually graduating from college. Just 20.5 percent of adults 25 and older in Winnebago County had a bachelor's degree or better in 2009, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. The average is 29.8 percent in Illinois and 27.5 percent nationally. A counselor can fill out a student's FAFSA find them scholarships they qualify for, and even walk them to the door of a university, but if they don't make it to graduation, how much of a difference are we actually making? Schools need to provide more resources for students to gain access to college. More workshops need to be hosted in order to encourage students to proceed to college. I would also try to incorporate more college fairs throughout the school year. This will expose many students to colleges that they might not have ever heard of. Another idea that I have come up with is to begin a college preparation class. I would like for this class to be mandatory throughout high school. I will use programs such as career cruising and whets next Illinois as a curriculum for the class. These programs have many resources that were set up to guide students each grade level. Statistics show that if a person succeeds in their first year of college, they are more likely to complete schooling and graduate. If we are successful with