Recently there has been a lot of publicity about the College Advising Corp and how the corp will "solve" the problem of low college admissions among first generation students. Honestly, I "love" our college adviser and we work well together. In fact, he adds so much to our department in terms of reaching out to colleges, arranging college tours, setting up SAT workshops, managing social media accounts, and running a college advising center. Truly, he is a great extension of our counseling department! However, the recent publicity about the corp and the negative comments about school counselors really got me feeling a little defensive. In these times of school counselor layoffs, rising student-counselor ratios, and fair share duties, I believe the school counselor has become an easy target!
Last week, the president acknowledged the contributions of the College Advising Corp. The sole purpose of the college adviser is to advise first generation students and their families that college is possible. College advisers receive several weeks of training on how to work with high school students. Some components of this training include: how to talk to students in one on one meetings, how to work with different types of personalities, where to find college resources and scholarships, and skills of fundraising. Since the national spotlight is on the college adviser, it is my belief that counselors and college advisers should collaborate to find ways to improve college admissions for our first generation students as a team.
Wouldn't it be awesome to enhance the role of the school counselor in the area of college advising by taking advantage of the popularity of the college adviser? Never one to let an opportunity slip through my fingers, I approached our college adviser about a possible collaboration. Instantaneously, his face lit up and we agreed to speak to his supervisor about our idea to work together. Right now our plan is in its infancy, but I look forward to sharing our experience with you in the future!
Our College Adviser
National College Advising Corp
Georgia College Advising Corp
Noles2College Twitter Account
President Praises College Adviser
From the Counselor's Office: Wrong Question and Quick Fixes
Working with 1st Generation Students
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