High School Counseling Newsletter |

Dear Parents,

With Global Citizenship Week next week, we wish all students a safe journey and hopefully some personal growth as they see and experience new worlds and cultures. Can’t wait to hear about the adventures next week.

Grade 12 –US Passport holders applying for any type of financial assistance or scholarships at US Universities may have already started completing the FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Here are a few tips to help in that process:

You first need to apply for a PIN before you can begin completing the FAFSA.
Be sure to use the correct website: https://fafsa.ed.gov/.
Parents will need tax information.
The sooner you apply, the better.
When listing universities on the application, list them in ABC order, not in order of preference or priority.

Grade 11 – Junior Parent Night last week was a success as well as Junior Seminar with students. If you weren’t able to attend the evening event for parents officially kicking off the university application process, you can access the presentation here.

The Junior Packet assignment was due last week and now students can begin scheduling the Junior Conference (meeting with Student, Parents, & Counselor) now through March 20.

A reminder for 11^th graders who plan to take the SAT, there is a free SAT online preparation tool in Naviance called PrepMe. Once students log in, a link is on the left hand side under resources.

Grade 10 – Almost all the sophomores have finished exploring what their strengths are, what people like them do for a living, and how to put those two things together to think about what they might like to study in the future. This will be useful in our next meeting with the sophomores, February 25/26, when they will begin to tentatively choose their classes for the coming school year. Have a chat with your son or daughter to make sure that you are “on the same page” as them for their plans for the rest of high school. And have a safe and productive GCW everyone!

Grade 9– Freshman and their families are encouraged to re-visit results from their personal strengths exploration and learning style inventory which they completed in Freshman Seminar last semester. A good conversation may be about how the student plans to utilize his or her strengths this semester, while also taking into consideration learning environments that will serve the student well in his / her studies.

At this point students are settled into their schedules and starting to establish routine. Students and families are reminded to take advantage of the flex time in high school. This is between 2:10 and 3:10 Monday through Thursday. It is a great opportunity for students to check in with their teachers, work in study groups with their peers, access the library for resources. Nearly all activities and sports do not start till 3:15 as to keep this time open for these type of purposes.

It is also encouraged with Freshmen to try and complete homework assignments / activities the night that they are set. This allows students to check in with the teacher the next day if they still have have questions on the assignment. It also gives students time to possibly review and polish an assignment the next day if need be.

Upcoming College/University Visits
No visits February 9 – 13 due to GCW.

Please see Naviance for the extensive list of colleges/universities that will be visiting ISB.
The HS Counseling Department