May 20, 2014 Meeting Summary

Transcription

1 Here is the updated contact information for Roundtable participants. Attendance: There were 67 folks in attendance about 30 for the meeting before the film. We held an abbreviated Roundtable meeting this month with a packed agenda. Old Business: Logo: After launching our logo design competition following the last Roundtable meeting, the group voted to accept Cindy Hsieh s design concept for our logo. Cindy is a 9 th grade student at Peters Township High School. Members of the group brought t-shirts, mugs, lunch bags, books, gift cards, etc., for Cindy s prize. Kim McCurdy will contact the student and guidance counselor at the school to determine when we are able to present Cindy with her prize package. After voting to use Cindy s concept, Kim sent the logo to the designer at PHEAA who made a few alterations to the logo. Kim sent out an with both designs to the membership and the vote was overwhelmingly to use the logo that is shown above. In her contact with Cindy, Kim will advise that student that we loved her concept and altered it slightly. In her paperwork, Cindy did indicate that she understands and authorizes the Roundtable to use her design in our materials and on our future website. Minority Transition Committee Report: Lori Rue provided the attached summary of the latest committee meeting and Peggy Schmiedecke reported to the group. The committee is preparing a survey for students, parents and post-secondary counselors. They will reconvene in June and provide any updated information to the group. Please read their full committee report here. Website Report: 1

2 Kim reported there is no new information on the website at this time. PASFAA is still looking into costs and development. Kim will work with Laura Papcunik, chair of the PASFAA Financial Aid Awareness Committee to see if we are still on target for a fall release. More to come. New Business: The College Board Upcoming Changes to the SAT The College Board representatives, Stephen Zori and Amy Miranda, provided a brief overview of the upcoming changes to the SAT. The highlights included: The website for information of the redesign is Only 43% of the seniors who took the test in 2013 achieved the career and college readiness benchmark set by the College Board. The reimagined test will first be administered in Spring 2016, affecting the class of 2017 the most (current freshman students in high school). The test will move from a scale to a scale which will include components of Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (800), Math (800) and a separate Essay Score. There will also be multiple insight scores available. If you need more information or have any questions, you should contact Stephen or Amy. Their contact information is included in the contact sheet attached above. Here are the handouts, including the PowerPoint that was presented. 2

3 Discussion Item: How do schools treat incoming traditional freshmen with Dual Enrollment credits? One item sent in for discussion was to ask how colleges treat freshmen students that have completed dual enrollment courses while in high school; specifically, what if they have an associate s degree upon admission. Will they be treated as a transfer student and perhaps miss out on scholarship opportunities? Three colleges and universities in the room said they treat those students as freshmen students, according to their high school graduation date. They do not lose any financial benefits or opportunities. Meeting with the Mayor s Office in Pittsburgh Not mentioned at the meeting, due to the abbreviated schedule, was a meeting that representatives from the Roundtable attended with the Mayor of Pittsburgh s Office. Lori Rue, Stephanie Hendershot, and Kim McCurdy met with Dr. Cosette Grant-Overton and Dr. Curtiss Porter from the Education and Neighborhood Re-Investment division of the Mayor s office. The Office gave their endorsement to our group. PACAC Update Kim McCurdy provided a PACAC update. She and Patti McCarthy, from IUP, attended PACAC s Walk the Hill/College Access Forum in Harrisburg on May 6, Kim and Patti met with legislators, encouraging them to support PACAC s mission for legislators to support reinstatement of lost education funding budgets and the hiring of additional high school counselors. Additionally, Kim sat on a panel discussion and relayed the Roundtable s Year-In-Review. Attached are our accomplishments for

4 Also from the PACAC meeting, Bob Fruend of the National College Advising Corps (NCAC) approached us, interested in perhaps expanding their program to areas of Western PA. The NCAC provides recent college grads to serve high school students who are low-income, first generation and underrepresented make their way to college. They are currently serving 12 high schools in South Central PA. Bob s information is listed above. Summer Melt Program at University of Pittsburgh: Pete Lavorini at Pittsburgh Public Schools mentioned this program and about putting us in touch with someone to provide information to the Roundtable. Pete has put me in touch with Lindsay Page at Pitt and I will be in touch with her and provide an update to the group. First Generation Documentary: Our final event of the year was viewing the First Generation Documentary co-sponsored by Wells Fargo. The film followed four, first-generation students from junior year in high school, through high school graduation. The students struggled not only with figuring out how to approach admissions, scholarships, paperwork, etc., but they also had personal struggles they were trying to overcome as well. Ben Brudnock of Wells Fargo led a discussion after the film for those that were able to stick around. We discussed that while it was valuable to view the film, perhaps the next step could be to schedule an event of a larger scale for low-income, first-generation students to view the film. The folks in the Erie area are interested in bringing the film to North Western PA in the future as well. We talked about members of our group being first generation students and what life-lessons we might be able to pass along to students perhaps through our own film. It was mentioned that perhaps we need a committee going forward to work on other initiatives so that this isn t the end and we can use this momentum moving forward. Ben called it the First Generation Pittsburgh Project. We will look into scheduling a planning committee meeting in July so we can start moving things forward. If you are interested in being a part of the committee, let Kim know. She will also send out a call for participants in late June. Thank you to Wells-Fargo for providing the film to the Roundtable meeting and Ben Brudnock for his efforts in coordinating the licensing agreements, etc. 4

5 A special thanks to La Roche College for hosting and Peggy Schmiedecke for pulling the event together. Peggy initially agreed to host our meeting for May before we realized we would be viewing the film and hosting a large group. La Roche graciously provided lunch to all of the participants, which included 7 students from area high schools. Thank you, Peggy and La Roche! Calendar Items: I. The College Board will offer their Fall Counselor Workshops. Registration is required and available now at The local workshops are: - September 23, 2014, at Robert Morris University - October 8, 2014, at Allegheny College II. PHEAA will offer their Fall Counselor Workshops at various locations throughout Western PA. Please see the attached for dates and locations. Registration will be available around Labor Day. Future Meetings: Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 10 a.m. noon - This meeting will be held at RMU in the International Suite at Sewall Center Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 10 a.m. noon Tuesday, January 13, 2015, 10 a.m. noon Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 10 a.m. noon Tuesday, May 19, 2015, 10 a.m. noon College Success Forum February 3 or 10, 2015??? 5