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School to Community Connection |
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Issue 114 Naviance Family Connection at Healdsburg High School This started out to be a column about the Healdsburg High School (HHS) Class of 2006—where these 186 graduates are going after high school, how many are going to a specific college or trade school…….but as I talked with HHS Counselor Ilene Frommer, I learned in much greater detail how this and subsequent classes benefit from a newly implemented career and college planning tool called Naviance. There is a lot for parents and students to learn when preparing for life after high school, but the HHS Counseling Department can help in many ways and with Naviance, they join with many prestigious public and private schools nationwide in providing Healdsburg students with the most powerful and state-of-the-art tool to assist them in reaching their post secondary education goals. As parents of a Class of 2006 graduate, my husband and I have supported our daughter and “her HHS team”—retiring HHS Counselor Richard Schroeder and McCord Career Center administrator Laurie Nimmo—as they have navigated the maze of requirements and forms students must sort through to get to where they want to go after high school. For today’s high school senior, there is a vast array of choice in trade/college/career paths, and still more choices within each path. At the start of senior year, there are school applications and deadlines, then the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form in the winter, and then individual scholarship applications in the spring. At each step, it can be difficult to know which choice to make. And, there is only so much time a student may wish to spend on future plans when the present so fills their days. Now, thanks to a grant obtained by HHS Counselor Frommer from the Healdsburg Education Foundation (HEF), these decisions will become a bit easier to make for high school staff, students and their parents. With the HEF grant, Ms. Frommer was able to purchase the Naviance program earlier this year and began implementing it with the Class of 2006. According to the company website (www.naviance.com), Naviance is a “Web-based planning and advising system that helps… manage the advising process. Nearly 15,000 educators and counselors serving more than 1.5 million students in schools across the U.S. and in 37 countries use Naviance products to manage academic and post-secondary advising, communicate with students and families …Naviance simplifies the process of providing up-to-date information to... support the college admission process.” What does that mean for Healdsburg High school students, their parents and the HHS counselors? At this time, it means that a student can find out the odds of making it into a college or trade school before going through the full application process. The Naviance Family Connection service is free to all students and initial access is done using an access code provided to each student by the HHS Counseling Department for the first time log-in. After that, the student uses their e-mail address and a password to log in. Students complete a multiple choice survey about their post-secondary plans—what they will do after high school—trade school, college, military, year off, etc. They are asked what schools they applied to and the results, if any, as well as their final school choice. Finally, they are asked to provide scholarship information for any funds they received. The students are asked to update the information as it changes so that the HHS Counseling Department has complete and useful data. Back to figuring the “odds” of getting into a school—this is where full student participation in the survey and accurate data entry matters. Data entered by students in previous years can be used as an indicator for current students making decisions about where to apply. Using just the data entered by the Healdsburg High School Class of 2006, the acceptance rates for applicants to each trade school, college and university can readily be generated. Based on data submitted by 89% of the Class of 2006, as of June 7, 2006 the Naviance database shows that of the 85 applications submitted to all campuses of the University of California system, 56 (65%) resulted in a letter of acceptance—this includes students that applied to more than one UC Campus. For the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Pomona campuses, it was 47% (10 out of 21), for the Santa Rosa Jr. College it was 91% (68 out of 71) and for all the California State campuses it was 86% (99 out of 114). The Cal Poly and State numbers also include students that applied to multiple campuses. For Cornell University, 83% were accepted (5 out of 6), for Dartmouth, 25% (1 out of 4), and for Dominican University, it was 100% (5 out of 5). For The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, it was 100% (2 out of 2), the Culinary Institute of America and the Brooks Institute of Photography were also 100% (both 1 out of 1) and for the Academy of Art University it was 100% (4 out of 4). Now, students and parents can get real numbers about real HHS students. As the HHS Counseling Department continues to use the program and subsequent classes provide their individual student survey information, the amount of data and what it means will improve and expand. But, even with just the 89% of the Class of 2006 data available today, the Class of 2007 can get a sense of where they can go from Healdsburg High School. With Naviance, the HHS Counseling department can also identify trends and provide feedback to faculty and administration to help them assist students in achieving their future goals. This fall, Mr. Ever Flores joins the HHS Counseling Department team. Mr. Flores is currently attending UC Berkeley’s Certified College and Career Planning Program, is bilingual and has been a counselor at Healdsburg Elementary schools, Healdsburg Jr. High and the Marce Becerra Academy. Both Ms. Frommer and Mr. Flores look forward to working with students and parents. They can be reached by phone at 431-3432 and the department also has a website at http://www.hhs.husd.com/counseling/. Choose “College Planning Center” or “Career Corner” for career and college planning information, NCAA information, testing and admission information, etc. There is also information about FAFSA, community service hour requirements and work permits. ------------------------------------ Julie Conklin is a member of the HUSD Communications Committee. She and her husband Bill are the parents of a 2006 graduate from Healdsburg High School and a future Class of 2010 student. |
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