N EWBURY P ARK H IGH S CHOOL

Transcription

1 Sophomore Counseling Conference Welcome Class of 2009 Welcome Class of My name is Miss Lopez. I am one of Speaker: Bianca Lopez the counselors; I am the newest addition to the counseling team and you are very, very lucky to have the wonderful counselors that you do. I would like to introduce them. The first one is Mr. Intlekofer and he has letters A through D. The next is Mr. Severns and he has letters E through Ko. I m next and I have letters Kr through Ph and the 504 students. Next is Miss Villavicencio and she has Pi through Ta and students who are in the ELD program. Our last counselor is Mrs. Swavely; she has Te through Z and students in the Special Education program. We want to thank you for coming. The reason we invited you here today is to let you know that we care about you; to let you know that you are halfway through, almost halfway through. We want to highlight your accomplishments, which is why you have your transcript in hand. You can look at all the classes that you ve taken and all the wonderful grades that you ve gotten. We also want to let you know and help you navigate through your last two years here. The counselors are going to go through explaining what the transcript is, our course offerings and where you want to be in two years. Next up is Mr. Severns. Graduation Requirements Credits: 230 Courses CAHSEE Speaker: Chuck Severns, Counselor The first thing I talk about is The Three C s. We are looking at credits, courses and California High School Exit Exam. For parents and students alike you will find nearly identical courses you were taught. Maybe some of the course titles have been changed. There are far more requirements when we get to college and university admissions than when I was a student here. I have seniors coming in to see me and I ve got the number one ranked senior in the class and she s been that way since she came to Newbury Park High School. I ve got seniors who are digging and scratching to get to that 230 credits. They are doing an online course; they are going to adult education I ll see them tonight. They are going to first, second, third and fourth period. They are involved in a sport. And, for whatever reason, they were at a good point where you are right now but things began to slip, and slip. And they find themselves in a difficult position and there hasn t been a parent yet who hasn t wanted their child to walk across the stage. The phrase I hear from parents is I want my child to walk across and get their diploma. You do have to get 230 credits. If you take six classes a year, that is 60 credits every year. Assuming you do not remediate or repeat a class, that would 60 each year times 4 years equals 240 credits. You only need 230 to graduate. I had wonderful student in today, a junior, who was worried about having enough credits to graduate. He has taken all honors and AP classes but he was worried about graduation next year. I looked at his transcript

2 - 2 - and found that he is about 40 credits over where he should be because of his participation in period 1 and athletics in period 5. We ask you to look for any type of mistakes in your transcript. For instance, if you are new to the school, it is possible that we do not have all of your classes transferred over to the new Zangle system. If you ve been here from the beginning, we always like you to check for any type of mistakes so we can correct them. Beyond 230 credits to graduate, you need four years of English, three years of math, etc. You have to take the courses. The next part that is new is the California High School Exit Exam, within the last two to three years. It didn t exist when I was here. Now every student must pass the English/Language Arts and the Math portion of the Exit Exam. This is a California exam. If you pass it here at Newbury Park High School and you relocate to another school in California, you need not take it again. It goes with you. We recommend when you leave you get a transcript and make sure that it is on there so you can bring it to your next school and it s not delayed. Sophomores have not yet taken that exam. They will take it later on this year. They will have another couple of opportunities in grade 11 and three opportunities in grade 12. This year I have zero seniors who need to pass that exam or any portion of that exam. Last year I had zero seniors who needed to pass any portion of that exam to graduate. That is the quality of this school. You get a good education. I know you feel like you are competing against each other and most of our sophomores pass it the first time. In fact, this particular class is a very strong academic class. I was going through the transcripts of my 10th graders and I found a student that has a cumulative GPA. And this student ranked in the bottom 47th percentile in this class. I have student that had two B+s; she ranked 44th in the class. This is an outstanding class. You are competing against a group of students who are clearly skewed on the high end of the scale. Congratulations to you parents and students for working hard and doing all that you have. The California Exit Exam has not been a problem for students in my section of the alphabet. Subject and Credit Requirements Credits: 230 English: 40 credits Mathematics: 30 credits Health: 5 credits Physical Education: 20 credits Physical Science: 10 credits Speaker: Chuck Severns, Counselor Mathematics seems to be an issue for high school graduation. Yet it may not be for this class. Health, you knock that out in your ninth grade year. P.E. is the second most challenging subject for our students.. Here s a typical scenario: a student goes to 9th grade P.E. and earns 10 credits. A student goes out for a 9th grade sport and earns another 7.5 credits so he has 17.5 P.E. credits. As a senior he still has 17.5 P.E. credits. This student keeps telling us in grade 10 that he s going out for the same sport; we believe him and don t give him another P.E. class. He comes back and says, I missed that sport; I m going to go out for it in grade 11. Then he doesn t go out for the sport. You have to get 20 credits to graduate. I ve never seen a waiver yet for that particular requirement. High school graduation, a student must pass one year of a foreign language or one year of Visual and Performing Arts. It s different if you intend to go on to college. Whatever your student is deficient in upon graduation from high school in terms of four-year university admission requirements, they will have to remediate that, most likely at Moorpark College. It s easier to get in; it s a lot more challenging to get out.

3 - 3 - Academic Transcript Scholastic GPA - grade point average for all high school courses, including Algebra 1H and foreign language in the 8th grade, except Physuical Education. State GPA - most commonly used grade point average for colleges, includes all high school courses after the 9th grade year, and used to determine eligibility for CAL Grant. Indexed GPA - additional points added to the Scholastic GPA for all honors, AP and IB classes, used only to determine valedictorian Speaker: Kris Swavely, Counselor I'm really glad that we have such a great number in the audience this evening. Thank you for being here. Last week when we met and were talking about this evening, we were not sure we were going to have transcripts for you because we've been Zangled a little bit this year; but you've all been patient with us and you have transcripts - that's the good news. The bad news is your transcript may not be 100% accurate. If you look at it, as we do, that your transcript is a work in progress. Every time you meet with us each year - and I want to remind you that I think we are one of the only schools left who still meet with their students every year to personally register them for classes for the following year. When you do that, we will have gone through your transcript ahead of time trying to spot errors because information on there is entered by people, who sometimes make mistakes. And the people who program the computer sometimes make mistakes. So we are asking from you today to look at the transcript and make sure your address, birth date, telephone number -- all that information -- is accurate. Our job is to make sure that the credits are accurate, the grades are accurate; and then further down the road, you are exactly where you need to be. I'm sure many of you are wondering at this point in time how many credits should I have? The magic number is 90. At this point in time, as a sophomore, you should have 90 credits. If you have more than 90, good for you. You've been active in a period 1 class; maybe you've been active in athletics or theatre or something that is beyond the block classes of periods 2, 3 and 4. Extra credits are always good; no one is going to say you can't graduate because you have too many credits. So that's a good thing. If you are at the point now where you have less than 90 credits, there might be an error. It might be that we have to do some remediation. So if you have less than 90 credits, when you meet with us in the next couple of weeks, we will talk to you about ways that we can help you earn some extra credits. It might include summer school; it might include an additional class next year. But the good news is we have ways for you to make up credits. We are very fortunate with that here at Newbury Park High School. On the screen you can see that we have a number of GPA's and they each have a very distinctive use. Nine times out of ten when a student is talking about a GPA, and nine times out of ten when a counselor is talking about a GPA, it's the cumulative GPA. That's everything; all the courses you've ever taken. One of the things that's commonly misunderstood, however, is the indexed GPA. We use it in our District and it is intended for use only within our District. That GPA is not reported anywhere on college applications. Even on applications for a leadership class (and they have to meet a certain criteria), we don't report that GPA. That indexed GPA has a very specific purpose. A lot of times that's used to determine Superintendent's Highest Honors, Valedictorian, etc. Effective this year, there's been a change in selecting Valedictorian. That would be: any student can be valedictorian with an indexed GPA of 4.65 or higher. So, if you are looking at your indexed GPA right now and it's a little boosted because you are taking honors, AP or IB courses, you've got a nice goal to work toward. Any A that you earn in honors, AP or IB course earns you a.02 increase, and any B gives you a.01 increase in your indexed GPA. There is no benefit for earning C's. As you might know, a C in an honors, AP or IB course would be cause for us to look at whether that class is appropriate for you. So, if you are in those level courses, As and Bs are what we

4 - 4 - are aiming for. For those of you who are not in those level courses, in CP classes and other levels, of course As and Bs are always welcome as well. It's what we always hope for from our students. Please be patient with us on the transcript issue. We are trying very hard. Mr. Lepire and Mrs. Durley, our Registrar, have put in an enormous amount of hours trying to get us to the point where we are right now. As I said, as of last week we didn't know if we would have these for you. There's a second piece to your transcript which you do not have yet that will be available to you further on down the road. That is the testing information which constitutes the second page. It is our understanding with our new Zangle program that any tests that you've taken in the Conejo Valley will be listed there. That will include your CST (California Standards Tests); it will include the PSAT; the SAT exams and ACT exams. That will be a pretty useful page for you down the line. Rank in Class Rank in Class: Numerical position from the top of the class based on the Scholastic GPA. Indexed Rank: Numerical position from the top of class based on indexed GPA, used mainly to designate Valedictorian(s) and Saluatorian(s). Speaker: Kris Swavely, Counselor Again, those honors, AP and IB courses enter into your ranking. The indexed rank is not reported outside our district. It is not a weighted situation, which some schools are looking for. The rank in class is very important when we are looking for the top 10% in the class. In about a year we will be collecting information on you as a class to send to the UC System. It will be some of the students who have the highest rank in our class that we will refer as a candidate for the ELC. If you have any questions about them, when you see us next week, please be sure to ask. Colleges & Universities UC's, CSU's, & most other universities: "A - G" includes College Prep and higher level courses 4 years of English 3 Years of Math (through Algebra 2) 1 Year of U.S. History 1 Year of World History 2 Years of laboratory science 2 Years of foreign language 1 Year of Visual/Performing Arts 1 Year of approved electives Speaker: Richard Intlekofer, Counselor What we are going to talk about in this portion of the program is the college and university part of the presentation. First of all, relax, because it s going to work out. We ve been doing this for a number of years and I know that the college and university application process can get stressful. I don t want to kid you about that because there is a lot to do. I think the good thing is we are starting now with a very brief session. I m going to go through some very important things very briefly to get you started on that path, if you haven t already done so. Some of you have already started with the college research process and looking around at schools that interest you. We will continue that over the next two years. Today we will give you a brief overview of the college application process. Next year we will be offering a special workshop, just for juniors and parents, to get you started in the actual

5 - 5 - process itself: how to do the letters of recommendation, the essays; how to put together your hours of community service and your extra-curricular activities; what schools offer what kinds of programs; how to access the school websites; and how to search for universities. That s the part that you can start on now. Again, we are not telling you this so you will be nervous about it, because you will get nervous enough on your own without us telling you to. We do want to let you know that it s really important to look at this as your search for the school that fits you best. I think we all fall into that trap of thinking we all have to apply to the same 50 schools that are on the U.S. News and World Report list. That s not true. If your school is on that list, that s great. But there are many, many great schools that fit specific individuals. That s our goal: to help you find the school that fits you. You are going to choose the school. Don t think the school chooses you. We are going to help you find options; have a selection of schools to apply to. After the junior year hits and we work on the process with you, then in senior year we have workshops designed to help you complete the applications step by step in the evenings in October. We also have students who come in one by one to our offices some of you may have seen them this year in October and November. There are parents here who have seniors who have done that; and they will sit at our computers with us going through the application. We will read their essays; we will write their letters of recommendation; we will make sure the application is in its best shape possible. That s our promise to you; to get you the best application, to put your best foot forward when you are applying to the schools that you select. If they are lucky enough, they will take you. That s the way we look at it. Just briefly, the requirements for the universities are very similar to the requirements here at Newbury Park High School in the college prep, honors, AP and IB areas. You need to take a curriculum of course work. English, you need to have four years and you need four years to graduate from our school. In math, you need to complete through Algebra 2 for university entrance. Some of you are thinking, Oh, I m in Algebra 2 this year; I m done. Well you have completed the minimum requirements for university entrance; however, you still need to complete courses to graduate from Newbury Park High School. And your counselors will all tell you: take math all four years in high school. Even though you may complete your requirements this year or next year, keep taking math. Because, as you move to college, you will keep taking math, at least once. So it can be a challenging subject area for some students, and that s why you keep taking it. You don t back away from it; you keep going for it. So continue with math. We ve offered new courses each year. This year we started a course in addition to Math Analysis, which follows Algebra 2. We also offer Discrete Math and we offer Functions, Trig and Statistics. So we have choices for you. Take those choices. In U.S. History you ll be taking that next year. That s a requirement for graduation as well as for university entrance. You are in World History or European History this year. That will take care of that requirement. You need two years of lab science. Most four-year universities require two years beyond the physical science. Biology and chemistry are typically required for most schools. Some schools will accept Physical Science that many of you took freshman year as fulfillment of that requirement. But try, if you can, to get for college entrance through biology and chemistry, and they recommend a third science. Some students take physics. We offer that. We also have Anatomy and Physiology. We also offer Marine Science and we are trying to offer next year an Anatomy and Physiology honors level course, because many of our students have requested that. So, again, we are adding more courses each year to meet the requests of our growing population. Two years of foreign language this is can be a confusing topic. For minimum entrance to university, you need to take two years of the same language with Cs or better. Some schools recommend three to four years. What should you take? You take what you can handle. Your counselors are going to tell you to work as hard as you can in every subject to reach the level that you can handle. How do we judge that? You are the only judge of that. You know if you are working as hard as you can in a subject and that pays off in a reward for you with the prerequisite grade to move on to the next level. What happens if you take 2 years of Spanish and say, Well, okay, I ve had enough of that. Now I d like to take American Sign Language. It s a new course for us this year. It s

6 - 6 - very popular; it s been a great success. That would give me three to four years, because I ll have two years of Spanish and two years of Sign Language. But colleges don t see it that way. They are happy that you take Sign Language. They are happy that you take another UC or Cal State-approved course, but it doesn t count as the fourth year because it must be in the same foreign language. Consider that when you are looking at those requirements. One year of Visual and Performing Arts is now required for most universities. It didn t used to be that way, but most schools require one full course in a Visual or Performing Art. Mr. Severns talked about graduation requirements. To graduate, to just graduate from high school, and win the Lotto and retire at 18, God bless you, you would take either one year of language or one year of Visual/Performing Arts. For the rest of us, who aren t going to win the Lotto at 18, what you need to do is take a minimum of two years of language plus a year of Visual/Performing Arts. Again, we have an amazing Visual/Performing Arts department here. Take advantage of it. We don t want you to take these courses just because colleges say you need to. We offer these courses because it is part of your education for life and you are getting a great education for life in this department. So take advantage of that. It s free. One year of approved electives Somebody will say, Well, what elective should I take? You have a built in college approved elective: Government and Economics; it s required for graduation. So if all you did is take those exact courses, and nothing else for graduation, you would also fulfill if you are at the college prep, honors, AP or IB level you would fulfill university entrance. Those are minimum entrance requirements for most schools. Some of them vary as to wanting more, and, some less, in some cases. We want you to work with your counselor to determine eligibility for different kinds of schools that you are looking at. That s when I talked earlier about the research part of it. That s up to you and now is the time to start your research if you haven t done that already. There are a wide range of universities all over the country and all over the world that our students are going to. Statistics tell us, since many of our students apply to the University of California. The state average for students admitted to the UC system is about 12%; only about 11% are being admitted or having strong enough records to be admitted. Here at Newbury Park, in the last five, six, seven years, 20% - 25% of our senior class has been admitted to the UC system each year. That s a huge compliment to our students especially, and also to their instructors for preparing them for that university one of the toughest universities in the nation and one of the very best systems in the nation, with nine campuses for your to attend. We also have a great state university system, with 23 campuses now, including our new local favorite, Cal State Channel Islands. I don t know if any of you have visited there; we have several times as counselors. It is a great, great school. A little over 3,000 students. So you are getting private school size for public school cost. They do it right over there. They are so excited about having the chance to start a university, that they are making sure they have the pride and the energy to do things right and the way they want to. So keep that in mind too as a local Cal State, and there are 22 others in the Cal State system. Again, a great system and a great bargain for education. Private schools there are more than 100 throughout the State of California. Again, great schools, and they all fit different needs. That s, again, where you want to do your research. There are great schools outside of California, too. Sometimes it s hard for a California kid to leave and go away to school. I did. I was a California kid; I went away to school to the Midwest. Of course, it was quite a shock to me. I couldn t wear shorts 12 months out of the year. But it was a great experience; a great experience to see the rest of the country; to get to know different kinds of people from all over the place. It was really a terrific thing that I did in going away to school. That was me. You have to decide what fits you best. I would suggest to you to go visit schools. Visit schools all over the place. Visit local schools, even if you are not interested in them because it helps you get a sense of what you do want in a college. So go visit our local schools. It s free. Go to Cal Lutheran. Go to Channel Islands. Go to UC Santa Barbara. Go to UCLA. Go to Westmont. Go to Cal State Northridge. Go to

7 - 7 - Pepperdine all within a very close range of Newbury Park. Just to get a sense of what college means for you; what you are looking for. When you see something you don t like, make a note. When you something you do like, make a note of that, too. Then you can expand your search as far as you would like. When you are on vacation, don t hesitate to stop by colleges. Ask mom and dad to pull over so you can visit the school. They will probably be happy to do it. Community Colleges 109 campuses transfer program to UC s/csu s/independent colleges Speaker: Richard Intlekofer, Counselor We also have a great community college system in California. Moorpark is our local school and, again, if that s the school that fits you, that s a great choice. Mr. Severns mentioned earlier, we never want a student saying, I m just going to Moorpark. If that s your decision, you go for it. You can get a great education there and transfer on to the university of your choice, if you get the right grades. Again, you have to work really hard, because it s a challenge. As he said it s a challenge to get out. Easier to get in; a challenge to get out and to move on to where you want. Work as hard as you can here; prepare for Moorpark, Ventura, Oxnard, Pierce, Santa Barbara City College, Cuesta. We have kids going to community college in San Diego. That s, again, a choice that we want you to be able to make, and a good choice for some of our students. How many of you have taken courses at Moorpark College already? It s a great thing for our students that Moorpark and Ventura and Oxnard offer us the chance to send our students there for free. You don t have to pay the tuition fee. You are eligible to take courses there. You need to see your counselor about it. Your counselor will help you with the registration materials and the processing. You do have to pay for textbooks. I m sorry about that because textbooks are more expensive than the tuition. But the $20 per unit fee is waived. You use those for enrichment. They don t go on your high school transcript, but they count for your college admission and they count for your education for life that we were talking about a few minutes ago. Take advantage of that opportunity. We have a number of students each year who take summer session, fall or spring. If you are interested, come and see your counselor and we will show you how to find out which classes might fit you best. College Websites admissions Speaker: Richard Intlekofer, Counselor There are a number of websites on the screen. Some of them are national; helps you locate schools all over the country. It s a really good website. is a search engine for every single college in California: public, private, two-year, four-year. Every kind of school you can imagine is on there; it s a great place to start. is where you will eventually apply to the UC system. You ll start now by looking at a section called Introducing the University where you can find out about the different campuses and programs. is where

8 - 8 - you will apply eventually to the Cal State campuses. Again, for now, you can log in and set up your own account where you can put in your classes that you ve taken and it will tell you what classes you still need to qualify for admission. It s a great free service that they offer to our students. is something that you ll use more when you get a little older. But sometimes when students are taking transfer courses, the counselors will use it to find out what course at Moorpark College is equivalent to a course at UCLA, for example, or any other fouryear university in California, so you know you are taking the right course that will do the most for you when you are ready to apply for university life. It s a great website, especially for those bound for community colleges. is another free service that offers virtual classes. It also offers free SAT prep for you and a number of growing opportunities. It s a fairly new site, only about two or three years old, and they keep building it. Don t hesitate to visit that as well. College Testing PSAT: October 2007 SAT Reasoning Test SAT Subject Tests ACT Speaker: Richard Intlekofer, Counselor How many of you took the PSAT last year? Quite a few. Please take it again next year as juniors. It will be on the third Saturday in October. You ll sign up right here on campus. It s a great practice test for the SAT. You get terrific results back. Those of you who took it last year in October, you received your score report. They gave you a free subscription to a program called My Road.com on the College Board website. I highly recommend you use that to start your college and career search. It s a free subscription to something that normally would cost you to enroll in. It can qualify you as a junior for the National Merit Scholarship Program. We have five this year who are moving on to finalist standing in the National Merit Program and that s great for our school, our community and especially for the students and their families because there is scholarship money available to them. The Reasoning Test is what, for those of you who have students who have already graduated, used to be called the SAT I. It s the test that you take for most schools. Reading, math and writing skills are tested. The Subject Tests are different tests offered by the same company, the SAT, in specific subject areas in two different areas. You have to take those for the UC System and for some private schools. When should you take them? Typically we recommend you take them in the Spring of your junior year and in the fall of your senior year because you can repeat them and they will count your highest scores. I have another suggestion. The PSAT offers you a writing section but no essay. The SAT has a writing section with an essay. We ve been recommending lately to our students that they may want to try the SAT Reasoning Test for the first time in December of their junior year or January to give themselves an extra SAT with an essay as another practice round. And, then again, still have the same calendar for the SAT Reasoning Test in March or May and maybe do your SAT subject test in June. Another thing, if you are in a course that s at a high level, you may take the SAT Subject Test at the end of that course because they are offered seven times during the year. As sophomores you may find a course that you are in now that you are really doing well in, maybe you will want to take that this June while it is still fresh in your mind. Colleges don t penalize you; they count your highest scores. They don t take away for your lowest scores. Again, your counselor will help you with information specific to your college.

9 - 9 - ACT is a different test company that also offers entrance examinations that are equal to the SAT different format. But it doesn t hurt to take a look at their format to see if it fits you best. Here are the websites: You should get your account set up on College Board now, even if you are not ready to take tests. They will send you s about all kinds of information. It s a good idea to go into collegeboard.com to learn about all the things that they can offer you. is where you can find out about the ACT. This is a long process and we ve covered a lot in about minutes. Please be patient with the process but don t wait to start the process. Start looking through things, especially students, start researching, looking at schools, paying attention to what comes to your home in the mail because if you took the PSAT you are getting mail then come see your counselor. Our goal is to help you be exactly in the right place, sending off your letter of intent to register to your school in May of your senior year. It will come fairly soon and that is why we want you to get a good head start. Special Interest Areas Co-Curricular Participation: 2.0 GPA required Regional Occupational Program Work Experience Adult Education Summer School Off-Campus Lunch Policy Speaker: Karla Villavicencio, Counselor I will be going over the special interest areas in high school. The first is co-curricular participation. For all those athletes out there, club advisors or actors in theater, just remember 2.0 GPA is needed to stay eligible to participate in any sports or plays. Mr. O'Brien in the Athletic Department checks that on a regular basis. I've seen him pull out a student because they were not eligible to play. Remember, 2.0 GPA. ROP, which is the Regional Occupational Program, is an excellent program open to students starting next year as juniors. This is a great way to also earn high school credit; a total of 30 for the entire year. This is also a part of their high school curriculum. This is great vocational training and they also receive a completion certificate at the end of the program, which a lot of our students are using for entrylevel jobs. I have a senior currently who is doing the ROP Banking and Finance and she has been hired as an entry-level loan officer for Bank of America. So this is a great opportunity for some students. Work Experience is also another excellent program open to juniors and seniors. They are able to get 5 credits for juniors and 10 credits for seniors while they are working. They meet once a week in Period 1 with Mr. Ropes. Mr. Ropes watches them, takes care of them and makes sure that their job is not overworking them. Adult Education is another way a lot of our students are catching up on credits they might be a little short on. If you take a look at your transcript, and I'm hoping it's as accurate as it can be; it might not be. We still need to do some corrections. If you notice your student is below a certain amount of credits, there are ways to remediate that. There's summer school, that we will be discussing with your student when we see them for registration; or for some students, Adult Education is also another means. Just a reminder, Adult Education classes are used for remediation and they are at the standard or basic level. They are not CP, honors, or AP levels. Off-Campus Lunch Policy: Congratulations, starting next year you are eligible for that. It's a 2.0 GPA to qualify. Mr. Berlin and Mr. Cook, our Dean of Attendance and Dean of Students make sure that is taken care of; they look at it carefully. Also, you cannot exceed three truancies returning from off-campus lunch. Also, parents, in order for your students to receive their off-campus pass, you need to sign for it at the Attendance Counter in the office.

10 Majors Program Art, Media and Communication Business Engineering and Environment Health Science Industrial Technology Public Human Services Speaker: Karla Villavicencio, Counselor The Majors Program is an excellent opportunity for your student to be involved in. This is available in B-1 in our College and Career Center with Mrs. Anders. She and the counselors work very closely to make sure that your students receives the correct classes in order to receive cords upon graduation. Your student can pick up an application from Mrs. Anders and they will need to get the parent signature and also the counselor signature. Academic Petitions Honors This is an important reminder to students currently in Honors, Advanced Placement AP, and IB classes (that begin next year). Grades need to be not lower than a B- to stay in these classes. If your grade ever falls lower than the B-, then your counselor will be forced to place International Baccalaureate you in CP level classes. For students in CP level classes who are interested in Speaker: Karla Villavicencio, Counselor being placed in Honors and AP level classes please remember that an Academic Petition needs to be filled out. The petitions will be available when your students meet with their counselors for registration. At this time your counselors will tell you what needs to be done on the petition and the deadline for this as well. College & Career Center College Speakers Financial Aid Catalogs Career Development Speakers Employment Opportunities PSAT, SAT Information Speaker: Karla Villavicencio, Counselor There are many benefits to visiting our College and Career Center (CCC) in room B-1. Mrs. Ricafort is our College and Career Center Technician. As you can see, there are many resources here that include our College Speakers in the fall. Mrs. Ricafort works very hard to recruit a variety of speakers for students to have the one-on-one experience with a recruiting counselor from various colleges. Financial Aid Information is also available here. Starting in their senior year, students can check the Scholarship Bulletin that Mrs. Ricafort prepares with a variety of opportunities to fund their future education

11 Mrs. Ricafort also has job opportunities and volunteer opportunities available at the CCC. She keeps her bulletin up to date with the most recent openings for our students. You can also pick up a Work Permit application from Mrs. Ricafort after your student is hired for the job. Please remember that the CCC also has very important information regarding testing. The includes PSAT, SAT, and ACT's. You can also visit if you would like further information. In October this is the location where students will sign up to take their PSAT tests. Thank you for attending this afternoon. NPHS Counseling Staff Thank you very much for joining us this evening. We hope to have answered many of your questions. Please remember your counselor s address if you need to ask us further questions. Our website is located at You can click on "Counselors Corner" to see all of the addresses.