College and Career Message for September 2020

Happy College & Career Awareness Day!

At the end of each month, we'll be sending some information on how you can plan for your future college and career goals!

This month's theme is: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Some of us may have heard this once or twice before. It is a simple question, and an all important one at the same time. The importance of it is not so much the specific answer as it is the process used to formulate responses to this question.

Think about it. In order to answer that question, one would have to look to the future at possibilities. For some of us, looking into the future poses challenges. We can be caught in the moment so intensely that we focus more on the “today” more than the “tomorrow”. When that happens, remember that it’s okay if you haven’t figured it out yet.

While the vast majority of high school students want to go to college, most feel unprepared to do so (youthtruthsurvey.org/college-and-career-readiness/) . College (4-year institution, 2-year community college) is certainly a future option, but it is not the only option. 

There are a plethora of opportunities for future success through the military, career technical training programs, and other career opportunities as well. For example, did you know you can become an electrician through an apprenticeship program in San Diego (www.abcsd.org/apprenticeship)?

Whether you are in 9th grade or a senior, now is the time to begin looking into your future. Once you are focused on doing your best in the present to prepare for the future, you can begin goal-setting. Your friendly neighborhood counselors are here to support you on your journey. Reach out to them as soon as you are ready to walk down that “tomorrow” path.

Look out for more information on College and Career Awareness!

Below are a few resources to help you begin your future-planning journey.

Career Education
careered.org/

College
CSU System- www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/Pages/first-time-freshman-guidance.aspx
UC System- admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/
Southwestern Community College- www.swccd.edu/
San Diego Community College District- www.sdccd.edu/future-students/

Military
www.todaysmilitary.com/

Claremont McKenna College Preview Fly in Program

Fly In Program Flyer

Interested in visiting Claremont McKenna College? Then click on the link above for information about their 2018 Fall Preview Fly-In Program. Preview is designed for first-generation college students and students from diverse backgrounds who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education. The program aims to provide high school seniors with an inside look into the life of a CMCer! All transportation costs, housing accommodations, and meals during the program will be covered by CMC.

The Preview application will be available May 21 through August 18, 2018. Students can apply at connect.cmc.edu/preview. To be considered for the program, students must complete an application including 6 short response essays and submit a high school transcript and a list of their fall term courses.  All of this can be submitted in the application. Applicants and their counselors will be notified of our final selection by Tuesday, August 28. 2018. During the program students will have the opportunity to attend classes, explore our eleven research institutes, attend a presentation at the Athenaeum, connect with current students and professors, and enjoy the perks of the Southern California sun!

CMC is a comprehensive applied liberal arts college. We foster a close-knit, collaborative, diverse community dedicated to the free exchange of ideas and inspired by our mission to prepare students for thoughtful and responsible leadership in the private, public, and social sectors. CMC ranks among the nation's premier liberal arts colleges, enrolling over 1300 students who are eager to engage in intellectually stimulating discussion to develop practical solutions to evolving challenges. With a need-blind policy where students are admitted without regard to their family's financial resources, and our pledge to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, CMC is committed to ensuring diversity in its student body.

If you have any other questions about CMC or the Preview Program, please feel free to reach out to us at preview@cmc.edu or (909) 621-8088.

Attn Seniors: SUHi’s REACH HIGHER SIGNING DAY

SUHi’s REACH HIGHER SIGNING DAY is May 4th! We have a fun celebration planned for LUNCH TIME!

We are excited to celebrate all the wonderful plans you have after high school!

We’ll have food, fun, and giveaways for you!

Make sure you fill out the REACH HIGHER SENIOR SURVEY to be included in the celebration:
https://goo.gl/forms/cltKIT2ieZcaeVJ33

Be on the lookout for your golden ticket invite in your 6th period class on FRIDAY!

Don’t leave class early! Come to senior lawn at the beginning of lunch.

See you there!

College Signing Day 2017 - SUCCESS!

Thank you to Habit Burger, Donors Choose, and Better Make Room for helping make our 2017 College Signing Day a success!

We are so very proud of our seniors!  Best wishes Class of 2017!

Monthly College Awareness Day

Our Monthly College Awareness Day is just around the corner!

We encourage school-wide participation on the last school day of each month ($PayDay$):

• Staff and students are encouraged to wear their college gear
• Teachers are encouraged to take a few minutes in class to discuss the monthly themes. Sharing your personal experiences are great teachable moments!
• Counselors are available to come into classes to discuss monthly topics. Please email a few days in advance
• Mini-College Fair hosted by the counselors and other campus organizations at lunch in the grass area behind the main building
• SUHI Media to produce videos on school news
• Counselors to provide slides for news scroll
• ASB to create and post posters around campus

The theme for JULY is THE RED DEVIL WAY:

•        Hard work and success go hand in hand. The Red Devil Way is to do your best to succeed in all your classes and don't be afraid to ask school staff for help or advice.
•       Feel free to discuss The Red Devil Way with your students and how the characteristics fit your class. Students and staff who exemplify The Red Devil Way will be recognized throughout the school year.
•        Please share with students tutoring and extra academic support opportunities for your classes.
•       Encourage students to complete a “Counselor Request Form” at the front window of the counseling center if they would like to meet with their counselor.

As part of our College Going Culture initiatives on campus, the counseling center will start a “MAJOR MONDAY” feature on our social media channels. We are encouraging staff and alumni to post a picture (or send us the picture), tag #SUHiMajorMonday, and share your college of attendance and major studied! 

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Why are pirates the coolest?!

They just Arrrrrrrrgh!

It's #collegeawarenessday and pre-Halloween! Thanks for stopping by and chatting with us #sweetwaterhigh!#scchat #schoolcounselor #schoolcounseling #reachhigher #collegegoing #nationalcity #reddevilsreachhigher

A photo posted by SUHi Counseling Ctr (@suhicounseling) on Oct 30, 2015 at 1:16pm PDT

Finding the University That’s the Right Fit For You

Originally posted on www.TierOneTutors.com 

There are thousands of colleges and universities out there to choose from. You can become overwhelmed with the “needle in a haystack” feeling when trying to find the right college or university that fits you.

There are schools with over 30,000 students, and some with as few as several hundred. Some schools are located in the middle of very busy cities and some are found in the middle of the forest, surrounded by giant redwood trees. Co-ed or not, east coast or west coast – the choices are endless!

One of the tools I’ve found most helpful for my students is Big Future, which is a section of the College Board website where students can prepare and register for the SAT college entrance exam.

Step One: Explore Career Interests
If I ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” you might have a vision of what you would like to do as a career. Using your career interest, you can start your search by clicking “Careers” under the “Explore Careers” section.

On the website, there are comprehensive descriptions of hundreds of careers. For instance, a student who might be interested in Computer Programming as a career can find desired personal characteristics for that specific career, courses to take in high school to best prepare, as well as average compensation for the desired career. Once the career is explored, you can go into more detail on the education needed and discover college majors by clicking “related majors” on the right column.

Step Two: What is a College Major?
A college major is what you will study in college which will give you the focused study and knowledge needed for your future career.

On Big Future, my student who wants to be a Computer Programmer found that a related major for his career would be, “Computer Science”. The description for the college major goes into more detail on the college degree required for the career of interest. This page also lists helpful high school courses, typical college courses, and more.

On the college major page you can click on “Which colleges offer a major in…” on the right hand column to start your college and university search for that particular major.

Step Three: Narrow Down the Search
Working with my student who wants to major in Computer Science, we found 915 college and universities that offer a study in Computer Science across the United States on the website. This includes community colleges, 4-year universities, and for-profit schools. That was way too many schools to search through so we decided to use the search filters to narrow down our list.

Big Future allows you to narrow down the search options by test scores and selectivity. A student would use their SAT/ACT scores to narrow down the college list.

I would also use a student’s high school class ranking in order to gauge how selective a college or university might be in choosing them. Class ranking can be found on a student’s high school transcript. So, if a student is in the bottom 50% of his class, I would choose the “somewhat elective” and “less selective” schools in the college search.

These filters narrowed down our list of 915 schools to 448.

Other filters on Big Future for the college and university search include type of school, location, campus housing, school activities, and more.

Working with my student who wants to major in Computer Science, we narrowed down his list of colleges and universities to public or private 4-year universities which were less than 500 miles from home. These filters narrowed down our list of colleges and universities from 447 to 24 schools.

You can now click on each college and university to learn more about it. If you create an account on Big Future, you can save the college and university by clicking, “Add to My College List”. 

Having a list of potential colleges and universities, like one you can create on Big Future, is a great start to finding the school that’s right for you. Sharing your list with your school counselor and asking for their advice in tandem with your academic record is a great way to ensure your choices are a good fit for you.

Looking for a college or university can be overwhelming, but with the right tools and a positive mind-set, it’s a task that can be easily done!

Mini College Lunch Fair: San Diego Culinary Institute & Paul Mitchell the School San Diego

Every last Friday of every month there is a mini college fair outside of the new building. This month we had San Diego Culinary Institute and Paul Mitchell the School San Diego come and visit Sweetwater. The AVID program came to promote their classes and the school counseling team shared information about legal field careers.

http://www.sdci-inc.com/

(619) 644-2100

info@sandiegoculinary.edu 

San Diego Culinary Institute is located in La Mesa, California. Their curriculum is focused on cuisine and pastry studies as well as marketing, business, and leadership, ALL skills that a successful chef needs to know!

Check out their website above to schedule a tour where you can see cooking demonstrations and sit in some of their classes. Enrollment is on going all year for full-time and part-time classes. 

Students talking to the San Diego Culinary Institute representatives about their cuisine and pastry programs.

A student signing up for a tour at San Diego Culinary Institute to see some of their food demos and sit in on some of their cuisine and pastry classes.

http://sandiego.paulmitchell.edu/

(619) 398-1590

Are you interested in becoming a hairdresser or makeup artist? You can learn to design high-fashion hair for the runway, become a celebrity stylist, work in print photography, television, opera, theater, ballet, or film. Paul Mitchell also offers opportunities in skin care, barbering, aromatherapy, nail artistry, sales, and marketing. It is is located in the heart of downtown San Diego and is one of the most prestigious cosmetology schools in San Diego! They offer day time and evening classes. Classes begin anywhere from mid January to the beginning of October. Visit their website today to learn more about the programs they offer!

Paul Mitchell the School San Diego giving out brochures.

Paul Mitchell the School San Diego talking to our students about their cosmetology programs.

http://www.avid.org/

Sweetwater High School offers AVID classes for students to support them in their college and career aspirations. AVID offers extra support with your classes and teaches you skills like how to write an effective personal statement and finding scholarships to help pay for college. If you want to know more, visit their website or watch the video below. 

Let your school counselor know if you want to be enrolled in AVID for the next school year!

gboss@bosslawfirm.com

Ginger Boss

wendy.connor@bbklaw.com

Wendy Connor

Project Legal Employment Awareness Program (LEAP) is an organization that helps promote legal field careers to high school students. If you want to know more about the legal field, don't hesitate to contact them. They will teach your about the different careers available, educational requirements, skills, and qualifications needed to do the job! 

Currently their website is not up and running; however, you can contact them through the email above to get more information about how to participate in their program.

Come visit us next month, Thursday April 30th, in front of the new building for our next mini college lunch fair!!! 

March Career Panel Speakers: Law Professionals

March Career Panel Speakers 

Law Professionals  

The last Friday of every month, our school counseling department hosts a career panel of speakers. Each month, the career speakers ranged from different job sectors such as: business, health sciences, and public service among other careers. For the month of March we were honored to host law professionals from the San Diego County. The following were our participating guest speakers:

Our guest speakers, Ynonne, Wendy, and Jesse spoke to our students who are interested in the law profession about their respective careers in the law field. Students also had the opportunity to ask questions that ranged from: how did they get interested in their respective careers and describing their typical day, among other questions. 

The guest speakers powerfully connected with our students when they shared with them their personal experiences that led them to their careers. One speaker, Jesse Navarro, disclosed to our students that he was born in Tijuana, Mexico and moved to the United States when he was a teenager. He stated, "I came here from Mexico not knowing the language, not knowing the history, not knowing anything about our wonderful country here in the US." Jesse also shared his educational struggles with our students because he did not know the English language. Not many believed that he could become a police officer. However, he continued pursuing his career goal and went to Miramesa College. He went to school during the night and took classes in the criminal justice program. During the day he worked as a welder. It took him 3 years to graduate from Miramesa College and afterwards applied for jobs as a police officer. Initially he was rejected multiple times, however, he obtain a job as a police officer in San Diego.  

Our guest speakers also gave our students great advice on pursuing a professional career in law. Yvonne and Wendy advised our students to always have a positive attitude. Having a positive attitude is key to getting and keeping a job regardless of the field that one is in. Jesse also added that if individuals wants a career in the field of law, they need to have a clean criminal record. In addition, the guest speakers advised our students that they have to work hard and get good grades in school.   

Our speakers talking to our students 

Some of our students stayed after the session to speak to our guest speakers!

Get to know our guest speakers:

Yvonne Kilmer: She has over 15 years of professional services management. She currently serves as Manager of Benefits & Human Resources for Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, a 150 attorney law firm. She has experience in staff recruiting, benefits, and accounting. Yvonne is a graduate from Sweetwater High School and also received her bachelor's degree in Political Science from San Diego State University. 

Wendy Connor: She is a Native San Diegan who attended Kearny High School. Wendy's legal career began in 1977 as a high school sophomore with the assistance of her high school counselor. She worked in a small law firm office until 1995 where she now works as an office manager. After 20 years at BB&K, she continues to enjoy working with lawyers and support staff to make everyone look good. Wendy lives with her husband in Alpine. They have six children and ten grandchildren. 

Jesse Navarro: Jesse is currently the Director of Community Relations, and has been since 2003. He organizes community meetings, town hall events and public safety presentations. He also represents the DA's office with high level Mexican officials. From 1990-2002, Jesse was a business owner. He owned and operated his investigative and consulting business in San Diego County providing expertise throughout the United States and Mexico on criminal, civil, and business cases. Jesse was also a law enforcement officer from 1974-1990. 

For more information:

If you would like more information about the law field and/or the guest speakers who came in to speak to our students, please feel free to click on the following links:

      http://www.sdcda.org                              http://www.procopio.com                              http://www.bbklaw.com

We want to thank our amazing guest speakers! 

Please join us next month on Thursday April 30th for our Media, Arts, and Entertainment career panel speakers! 

College & Career Mini-Fair!

The last Friday of every month, the school counseling team hosts a college and career mini-fair on campus. The month of February, we were pleased to have University of San Diego, Air Force ROTC, Center for Higher and Technical Education (CETYS University), and Texas Tech University. The representatives were happy to meet with students and answer questions that they had about college and careers.   

University of San Diego 

CETYS University from Baja California 

Texas Tech University

Air Force ROTC 

In case you missed out on the College and Career Mini-Fair, do not worry! We have provided websites for those who would like more information on:

http://www.sandiego.edu    http://www.afrotc.com     http://www.ttu.edu          http://www.cetys.mx/en/

Our next College & Career Mini-Fair will take place on FRIDAY MARCH 20th during lunch!

The school counseling team would like to say a special Thank You to our college representatives that came in and our students who stopped by!  

January Chef Career Speakers

Today, Tara from Juniper and Ivy and Baba from Arterra in Del Mar joined our students at SUHi to talk about their passions about being a chef. Students had the opportunity to ask them questions about how they view their jobs, how to become a chef, etc.

These ladies gave our students lots of great advice. They empahsized that teamwork and respect in the kitchen is a must, just like in any other work place. To be successful as a chef, you have to love what you do. It was very apparent these two ladies have a passion for cooking and love being in the kitchen as they told stories of their experiences working in the culinary field. 

Tara and Baba also talked about having passion for the work you do which ultimately leads to success, "If you have passion for what you do, it comes out in the meals you prepare and it reflects in the quality of your work."

To be hired as a chef, education is a must. Professional schooling or extensive training in a kitchen setting is most desirable. The ladies shared, "To be a chef, you have to start at the bottom and refine your skill, work your way up."

Ultimately, Tara and Baba emphasized that making impressions while in school and building network connections help you get a job.

Thanks to Tara and Baba for visiting with SUHi today!

Come join us next month, February 27, for our  information and communication technologies speakers! See your counselors if you are interested!

November 2015 Contruction and Engineering Career Speakers

Thank you to our construction and engineering  career speakers for sharing their insights with our students today! 

The importance of team work, people skills, English skills, and math mastery are MUSTS for the contruction and engineering fields. 

Check out this video to learn more about what our career speakers had to share!

Career Speakers:
Chris Caricato - Sheet Metal Workers Apprenticeship and Training Center
William Borinski - BAE Systems
Raul Moreno Field Representative for New School of Architecture
Donatello V. Josue P.E. Senior Civil Engineer
Charles Henkels - AGC Apprenticeship & Training

College and Career Awareness Day #ReachHigher

College and Career Awareness at Sweetwater High School occurs every last day of the month to bring post-secondary awareness on campus.

Thank you to our morning career panel speakers:
•Doug Thompson, Senior Vice President, Seacoast Commerce Bank
•Chris Jimenez, Regional Vice-President of Primerica
•Jacqueline Reynoso, President/CEO, National City Chamber of Commerce
•Amie Scully, So All Have Hope, Attorney/CEO

They gave great insight on needing interpersonal, organizational, as well as strong reading and math skills to be successful in any career. Their personal stories of success were very inspirational to our students!

Thank you also to our mini-college fair participants Grand Canyon University and CETYS. Dozens of students met the admissions representatives and asked lots of great questions!

Great job to our SUHI Red Devils who aim to #ReachRigher and commit to going to college after graduating high school!

College and Career Awareness Day - August 2014

College and Career Awareness at Sweetwater High School occurs every last day of the month to bring post-secondary awareness on campus.

Thanks to career panel speakers National City Mayor Ron Morrison and Tim Moylan from the San Diego Electrical Training Center for sharing their experiences in the building and construction trades!