Naviance - college navigation and statistics

Tenth-grade parents should now be able to access Naviance (ask your child or Mr. McBrien for a password) at connection.naviance.com/csny and click on links such as "Colleges our students are attending" and "Top 20 most popular colleges where our students apply" to get an idea about where Churchill alumni attend school and where they have been accepted. The number of students at each school is still low due to Churchill HS's brief history, but the data gives an idea about required GPA and school selections.

The Churchill College Office is currently working with 10th graders who are getting familiar with Naviance and how to use it to help navigate the college process. A first step is to identify colleges and adding them to the list "colleges I am thinking about". Naviance offers research tools including "college match" and "college compare" to aid with picking colleges.

During 10th and 11th grades student utilize Naviance to help find and keep track of colleges of interest in "colleges I am thinking about". This section contains application deadlines, links to the chosen colleges' websites and a box where students can mark level of interest for each college. It is easy to add and drop colleges to and from "colleges I am thinking about". Once the application process starts, students move selected colleges to the list "colleges I am applying to" and use this list to follow up and make sure the colleges receive required material in a timely fashion.

High college retention rate for Churchill alumni

Churchill students prove again and again that they are prepared for higher education. While 21 % of college students at full-time private non-profit four-year colleges drop out after freshmen year (40% at full-time public 2-year-colleges), Churchill students tend to return after their freshmen year. According to a recent survey of the 2010 graduating class, 90 % returned to college after their freshmen year.

Sources:
http://completionagenda.collegeboard.org/freshman-sophomore-retention
Churchill internal data

Scholarships for LD students

A learning disability may create an advantage with the admissions officer looking for diversity, and there are special college scholarships for LD kids. Most I have found so far are between $1,000 - $6,000.

The RICE Foundation (Rewarding Individual Success in Education) offers a scholarship and information benefiting LD students: http://risescholarshipfoundation.org/

Marion Huber Learning Through Listening offers a $6,000 to a students with dyslexia, http://www.learningally.org/About-Us/National-and-Local-Award-Opportunities/108/#ltl

The Novotni Scholarship Fund offers special scholarships up to $5,000 for students with ADD and ADHD:http://031df74.netsolhost.com/Documents/Novotni_Scholarship_Application.pdf

The Anne Ford and Allegra Ford Scholarships offer financial assistance to two graduating seniors with documented learning disabilities (LD) who are pursuing post-secondary education and have the ability to act as role models.

The Smart Student Guide to Financial Aid lists the Anne Ford scholarship and a few others on its website: http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/ld.phtml

The Edge Foundation repeats some of the previously mentioned scholarships: http://www.edgefoundation.org/blog/2011/04/06/college-scholarships-for-adhd-students/

The LD center is the key to college success

The importance of the learning center cannot be over-emphasized, says Veronique P. whose son Benjamin S. (Ben) is a freshman at Emerson College in Boston, MA. Veronique has heard too many stories over the last few years about graduates who were doing well at Churchill but failed in college because they did not take advantage of the available support. And since it is up to students age 18 and above to keep their parents updated on grades and progress, parents rarely find out in time to help avert academic failure. 

When adjusting to college, Ben missed the high degree of individual attention at Churchill that comes with the small student/teacher ratio, he writes in an email from Emerson. At Churchill that ratio meant that every teacher was very familiar with his effort level and accomplishments. Not necessarily so at Emerson.

“You have a different relationship with teachers at Churchill than at college,” Ben writes. “In college you really have to self advocate for yourself so the teacher doesn't only know your face, but your name and how hard you are working.” He found the self-advocacy preparation he received at Churchill the most important college readiness skill he learned while in high school. 

Being away from home in a new environment can be all at once intimidating, overwhelming and frustrating.  Veronique repeats over and over again that during the Junior and Senior years Churchill parents should make it a priority to drill the importance of self-advocacy into their children's heads so that they will be truly comfortable with speaking up for themselves when they are on their own. 

At Emerson Ben is taking advantage of peer tutoring, especially for essay writing and sometimes for test prep. The help center is available to every student and you don’t need to be an LD student to obtain assistance. Many main stream students also utilize the help center’s services for academic support.

Ben knew early on that he wanted to attend a college with a strong film program, which limited the number of schools of interest. He visited four colleges and decided on Emerson because of its highly regarded film program and well-connected alumni network, the "Emerson Mafia", which helps students find jobs in the competitive film industry. In addition to studying subjects that he finds interesting, he is enjoying being in college. “The feeling of accomplishment I get sometimes after a very busy week of working and studying hard,” is the best part of his new life.

Ben’s sister Emilie is a junior at Churchill getting ready to go through the college process. She is interested in Liberal Arts schools with strong dance programs, also in the North East. She has learned from watching Ben adjusting to college life and feels strongly that self-advocacy will be instrumental to her future academic success. When Emilie starts touring colleges this spring, she will spend a part of each visit at the Learning Center to make sure that the college has the resources she requires.

When planning school visits, systematically get in touch with the Learning Centers and schedule appointments with each of them, Veronique advises. The LD centers vary from college to college, and you may find that some are unable to help on a day-to-day basis because they lack the staff/structure/expertise. It is vital to know in advance about the supply of available resources and how to obtain access to these services.

“The LD center is the lifeline.”

Questions to ask:
1. Is there an LD Center?
2. What LD services and accommodations are offered?
3. Additional fees associated with these services?
4. Is there a general academic support center?
5. Are tutors peers or specialists?
6. What LD documentation is required? When and how is this info submitted?
7. Will the student need to update her/his LD documentation?
8. What kind of information should be submitted about the student's LD on the application?
9. How does a learning disability factor into the admission decision?

College Workshop presented by a Churchill parent alumnus, March 7

Warm up before the Life After Churchill workshop on March 14 (see previous post):

A College Workshop on March 7^th presented by Churchill parent alumnus Franca Rawitz is designed to support and inform parents of LD students who are approaching the college journey.  

There will be an overview of the admissions process, but the discussion will focus on the specific steps that parents need to take and questions they need to ask to insure the success of their children in college.

 6 - 8 pm at 417 East 90 Street 

  

Register by contacting colleen@maiaanyc.com,  212-426-3742 or

http://maiaanyc.com/maiaa_services_workshops.html

Life After Churchill workshop on March 14, 7 - 9 pm

Churchill’s final Parent Educational Network (PEN) workshop of the 2011-12 school year is rapidly approaching - register now! 

“Life After High School”

Wednesday, March 14^th, 2012

7:00 – 9:00 PM

Speaker: Susan Yellin

Registration fee: $20 per person

Graduating high school and moving on to further education or the workplace brings with it a whole new set of challenges, and this is especially true for students with disabilities. Our workshop will provide an overview of key issues that students and their families will need to consider after high school graduation, such as the legal rights that students with disabilities have available to them and the critical skills needed in order to succeed in their college and/or workplace.

To register online – click here!

The Upside of Dyslexia - NYT article and reader responses

Many Churchill parents are familiar with dyslexia and issues associated with it.  In an interesting article in the New York Times titled  The Upside of Dyslexia on February 4, 2012, the author cites recent research documenting advantages of dyslexia:

"Dyslexia is a complex disorder, and there is much that is still not understood about it. But a series of ingenious experiments have shown that many people with dyslexia possess distinctive perceptual abilities. For example, scientists have produced a growing body of evidence that people with the condition have sharper peripheral vision than others."

On February 13, the New York Times printed some of  the reader responses which were equally interesting.

If the links in the copy above are not working, click on these below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-of-dyslexia.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/opinion/the-reality-of-dyslexia-millions-struggle.html