Author: Helen, Paul, Sophie Editor: Julian Ho “What can we can do to make the school a better community?”, our school counsellor Mr. Michael asked us inexperienced pigeons on our very first Counselling Assistant Class. “Let’s write out some of the problems we see on campus and discuss about them. Is that a good place to start?” So we started brainstorming and we all agreed on one fundamental problem throughout our high school years. Two out of five Counselling Assistants are still working on their standardized tests. Among 47 seniors, more than half are experiencing the same struggle. They are on a verge of breaking down due to the overwhelming workload of SATs, ACTs, TOEFLs, IETLS, GPAs, extracurricular activities, advanced high school and college classes in order to meet college application deadlines. From this experience, we did not want younger high school students to suffer the same. As a team of 3, Paul, Helen, and Sophie, embarked on a journey to flip this situation around. Operation 9th graders: What to know in high school for college? Through brainstorming, debating and outlining, we had come up with three main points that we want to focus on in a 30-minute presentation: 1) Standardized tests: What are they? Why do we need to take them? What are the false common myths and test approaching strategies? 2) Finding interests during the beginning of high school years. 3) Grade Point Average (GPA) and the difference between Advanced Placement classes (AP) and Syracuse University Project Advance classes (SUPA). Obviously, our message was not to freak students out. We attempt to provide a good fundamental knowledge to help them understand that they still have time for passion and strength exploration, but they should have a certain awareness level for standardized tests, classes and activities. The key to success is proactivity - being open-minded, thoughtful and reflective.
As a team, we constantly sought to improve one presentation after another, engaging our messages to presentation. We also had two other counselling assistants Katie and Phuong, who despite their busy schedule always managed to give us full attention. They actively listened and provided deeper insights through constructive criticism and discussion leading questions. Thanks to their support, we grew to know our strengths, places for improvement and an understanding of one another. Sophie, our shyest team member has gained a huge improvement in her confidence and public speaking though her hands sometimes still shook out of nervousness. Mr. Michael is also guiding us throughout the process and tolerating our mistakes and procrastination.
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Authors: Katie Truong & Phuong Nguyen Editor: Julian Ho I was so ecstatic I found out I had been given the chance to be a Counselling Assistant. During training sessions, I literally squirmed to contain the excitement. I felt that my love of learning about people could be embraced and my will to make impacts could be celebrated with this chance. In the past month, we have been devoting our time to several projects. The first project my partner, Phuong, and I initiated was named “Balance Project”. It is based on the idea of living a balanced and fulfilling life. + emotional (e.g. relationships with close people, self-love, emotions stability) + spiritual (e.g. personal goals and values, knowing purposes of one’s life) + physical (e.g. healthy physical training and eating habits, sleeping habit) + intellectual (e.g. love of learning, continuous exploration of understandings) Our mission is simply to boost the student's satisfaction rate of the school’s study environment, seminars and their life in general. In order to achieve this seemingly vague goal, we set a 3-step action plan: Step 1: Raising awareness about the topic by explaining the four aspects of life through an impactful video in the assembly. Step 2: Getting students’ information through a survey which will be sent during homeroom on assembly day. Step 3: Analysing the information to personalise and better future projects according to the school’s needs. From the survey and analysis, our specific goal is to get an average score of more than 7.5/10 on the student's satisfaction on any future Counselling seminar. Plus, the student's satisfaction point should increase 15% by the end of the year compared to the first result.
I chose this project because I believe that it could greatly impact both to the school’s future projects and to the students’ lives. Living in balance, undeniably, is greatly crucial to everyone as it seems to be the key that leads to contentment and a fulfilling life. However, the big project is still under construction, we are hoping to better the product as much as possible before the release. |
Authors Paul Cao, Martin Lin, Sophie Vu, Helen Dang, Phuong Nguyen,
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