Welcome to the NCHS Guidance Corner

Mrs. Connie Mullholand
Connie.Mullholand@nck12.com
High School Guidance Office
727-541-7593, extension 223

Keep current with the guidance webpage...

GENEVA COLLEGE REGIONAL RECEPTION

To hear how Geneva College can help you find and follow God's purpose for your life, current students, current parents and admissions counselors will be on hand to answer your questions at a reception held March 27 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the Silver Sands Beach & Racquet Club on St. Pete Beach.  A complimentary continental breakfast will be served and for those who bring a completed admission application, the $40 fee will be waived.  For more information call 800-847-8255 or visit www.geneva.edu/reception.  RSVP by March 24th.  

THINKING ABOUT SUMMER?

The 2010 PAVE program at Vanderbilt University, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is a summer pre-college program designed to strengthen the academic skills of students who are planning to enter a college engineering, pre-medical, science, or technology program, and ease the transition from high school to college. PAVE is open to high school students who are in the 11th grade (class of 2011) or 12th grade (class of 2010) during the 2009-2010 school year. More information can be found via the PAVE website at https://pave.vanderbilt.edu.

Program dates: June 21 through July 30, 2010. Make-up and wrap-up sessions will be provided for students who need to arrive late or leave early.

Application deadline: April 20, 2010. Completed applications are evaluated as they are received.

Main website: https://pave.vanderbilt.edu

Cornell University offers Summer College Programs for High School Students.  Explore programs in several different career fields while earning an average of six college credits and enhancing your college applications.  Enjoy three and six week programs between June 26 and August 10.  Visit www.summercollege.cornell.edu for more information.  Applications are due April 24.

Wake Forest University is offering a three-week, residential experience for 36 rising juniors and seniors.  This year's group will follow a program of study based on a current global challenge--sustainability.  You'll partner with Wake Forest professors to examine the complexities of this issue through different lenses -- ecologic, economic, political, social, legal and more.  Your team will select a problem to solve while having fun.  Applications are available at www.wfu.edu/lens. 

University of Southern Californa (USC) has 3 separate summer programs for high school students -- USC Summer Seminars, USC Summer Certificates, and USC Summer Science Camp for High School Women (including Kayaking in the Pacific!).  To learn more about these programs go to http://cesp.usc.edu/go or call (213) 740-5679.

Boston University is offering an intensive experience in creative mathematical exploration to 65 ambitious high school students with an exceptionally strong interest in mathematics.  The programs will run from June 27 to August 7.  For more information call (617) 353-2563 or email promys@bu.edu.

Marist College, located in the historic Hudson River Valley, is offering a challenging 14 day curriculum with an opportunity to earn 3 college credits from July 11-July 24.  Programs include Business, Creative Writing, Criminal Justice, Environmental Science, Fashion, Game Design, Sports Communication and Theatre.  For more information go to www.marist.edu/precollege or call (845) 575-3226.

The Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) is pleased to sponsor the 12th Annual James L. Wilcox Minority Summer Residency Program at Florida International University, Miami (June 13-17) and University of South Florida, Tampa (June 27-July1).  While on campus, housing, meals and other program-related expenses will be provided by FICPA.  If you are a junior with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, classified as a minority, and interested in the accounting profession, please see Mrs. Mullholand for application information.

NCAA Clearinghouse

Juniors and seniors who are interested in participating in NCAA Athletics in college need to register with the NCAA Clearinghouse.  The eligibility center can be found at www.eligibilitycenter.org.  The registration fee is $85.  Once registration is complete, come to the guidance office for a transcript request form. 

Student-athletes who have previously registered will need to login at www.ncaaclearinghouse.net, verify your email address and select a new password. 

MORE FEATURES, LESS PAPER, MY SAT(R) ONLINE SCORE REPORT

As of May 2009, students will receive one less piece of mail from the College Board. Instead of receiving a paper score report, they will now receive all their SAT scores online through My SAT Online Score Report, unless they actively choose to continue receiving paper score reports. 

In addition to reducing the amount of paper used to print score reports, there are many benefits to using My SAT Online Score Report. It's available for free to every student who takes the SAT and is usually accessible several days before paper score reports arrive. This means that students can see their scores and get the meaning behind the numbers that much sooner.

My SAT Online Score Report also helps students to:

* Understand how the test is structured and scored,

  including the writing section and the essay

* See how they performed on each section of the test,

  including responses by question type and difficulty

* Compare their scores to the scores of students in their

  school, state, and throughout the nation

* Search for colleges, majors and careers based on their

  scores

* Work on improving their scores through targeted practice

  and links to SAT Skills Insight(TM)

* View a printable copy of their essay and see sample essays

  that received various scores

  SAT Skills Insight:

  http://click.collegeboard.com:8080/17128794.10832.0.6784

To utilize this option, students should sign up for My SAT Online Score Report today. However, if any student still needs to receive a paper score report, he/she can select "Update My Info" on the My SAT page to change his or her preference.

Score Choice Resources for You

The CollegeBoard's Score Choice option launched in March 2009 gives students the opportunity to select which scores they send to colleges by test date for the SAT and by individual test for SAT Subject Tests.

Each college, university and scholarship program has different score-use practices. To help students understand how institutions use scores, the College Board has developed an easy-to-use, student-friendly system that will display the score-use practices of participating institutions to students when they register for the test on collegeboard.com or when they order additional score reports. Colleges and universities will only receive the scores that students choose to send them, and scores will not be released against students' wishes. Students who have not reported scores to any institutions will receive special e-mail reminders when traditional score-submission deadlines approach.

Score Choice is optional, and if a student does not actively decide to use it, all his or her scores will be sent automatically. For more information, please go to:  http://click.collegeboard.com:8080/17128794.7203.0.4785

Check out these handy tools:

College Admissions Interview Prep Tips You Can Use

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Filling Out the FAFSA

You've got the grades. You've got the SAT scores. You've even gotten your acceptance letter. Now the only thing standing between you and your first year of college is the massive tuition bill. Thankfully Uncle Sam may be able to help you out. Providing more than $83 billion in student aid each year, the U.S. federal government is the number-one source of financial aid in the country. Read more>>

FREE College Resources!

Get practical advice about:

• Choosing the right college
• Financial aid, scholarships and budgeting
• Adapting to life at college
• Supporting your new college student

Go to: www.ChristianCollegeGuide.net/Subscribe

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES :

Kiwanis Club of St. Petersburg

Again this year the Kiwanis Club of St. Petersburg is offering to senior students who reside in St. Petersburg an opportunity to win a college scholarship worth $12,000 ($3000 per year, renewable for four years).  The Al Muter Scholarship is based on financial need, academic ability, and a well-rounded extra-curricular and work history.  The award is weighted to financial need and academic accomplishments.  The application deadline is March 26th.  If you are interested, please download the application from www.spkiwanis.org and see Mrs. Mullholand in the guidance office for additional information.

Bright House Volunteer Youth Service Awards

The Bright House Networks Volunteer Youth Service Award is designed to honor high school students in the Tampa Bay area, for their exemplary volunteer contributions that demonstrate leadership and a long term commitment to the community.  This year, twenty students will each win a laptop computer.  Applicants must be in grades 9-12, have a minimum GPA of 2.5 and have volunteered at least 50 hours between May 2009 and April 2010.  A completed application should include the application form, an official transcript, a mimimum 500-word essay written on what volunteerism means to them, a letter of recommendation from the school on letterhead, and a letter of verification on letterhead from the organization where the volunteer project took place.  Applications are due by April 16, 2010.  For more information, see Mrs. Mullholand.

SAT Skills Insight

Introducing SAT Skills Insight(R). Designed to assist and encourage students as they prepare to take the SAT, SAT Skills Insight is a helpful, easy-to-use tool that gives high school students a better understanding of what's tested on the SAT -- specifically, the types of skills they need to perform better in the classroom, on the test and in college. It provides real SAT questions and answers, suggestions for improvement, and guidance on how students can sharpen their skills, allowing them to become more comfortable with the types of questions they will see on the SAT. It also helps them to recognize that these skills are the same ones they've learned in the classroom, thus boosting their test-day confidence and familiarity with the SAT. All of this adds up to better results.

SAT Skills Insight is one more tool to help you guide your students toward their ultimate goal -- college success. It is a free online resource that is available to all students before they take their first SAT and as they prepare to re-take the SAT. You and your students will find that this tool provides new, valuable insight into the test. And after the test, you can log in with your studentsto review their personalized score results using My SAT Online Score Report.

With SAT In Focus, a new set of tools that include -- SAT Skills Insight and My SAT Online Score Report -- you can help your students do better, go farther and realize their full potential. So visit http://collegeboard.com/satskillsinsight to get started today.

The SAT score-reporting policy:

Read more by following this link: http://click.collegeboard.com:8080/17128794.1264.0.785