South Side Bee Branch School District

Junior Summer To-Do List

Here are some important things to be doing this summer to get ready for next year:

Enjoy your summer!!!!!!
Research colleges, universities, jobs, technical schools, etc.
Visit them! All these places will let you set up visits and tours to see if you are comfortable with the atmosphere and location. I am happy to help you set up tours with any place!
Decide what you may want as a career path and have some ideas ready to throw at me when your junior year starts
Take the ACT if you are planning to attend college to try to increase your score. There will be a July exam that you can sign up for as well as a September, October, December, February, April, and June exam throughout the year. Remember that to get unconditional admission into college (where you don't have to take remedial courses that you pay for but don't get credit for), you need a 19 composite score and a 19 in each area on the exam. If you don't have that, there are tons of ACT resources online and in bookstores to help you increase your score. We will also have a new ACT Prep class that you can take next year to help!
Realize that most colleges and universities, except many two-year schools, may only take have an ACT deadline of December of your senior year in which to take the exam, so don't wait too long.
Learn about financial aid and how to pay for your future by reading the financial aid books and pamphlets you were given and visiting How Financial Aid Works.
Go ahead and apply for your FSA ID. This is the login and password for you to be able to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). You will have to do this to get FREE MONEY in the form of pell grants or qualify for loans, if needed. Go to Create Account | Federal Student Aid. You will be required to have a student FSA ID and a parent FSA ID. Keep these safe!! It js sometimes a difficult process to retrieve these once you've forgotten them. We cannot apply for the FAFSA until October 1st, but if you have these, you will be ready!
Realize that not everyone will go to or needs to go to college. There are so many other avenues to take when it comes to your career like technical schools, apprenticeship programs, military, going straight into the world of work, and many more. Think about what is best for you and talk to your parents. If you need direction about how to find information about those things, let me know!
Psych yourself up that you will be filling out lots of paperwork and forms in your senior year. You will need to make sure you are looking at your school email every day for updates and scholarship info. Hang in there! The more you fill out the easier it gets!
Create a personal email using yahoo or gmail. All applications and things we apply for will need a personal email, and you cannot use the school's since you cannot receive incoming email from outside sources. Please make sure this email is APPROPRIATE and BUSINESS-LIKE! We don't need things like "imahotmess@gmail" or "sexyguy19@ yahoo". These do not look good or speak well of you when you are making applications!!
Be careful on your social media this summer and make sure there is nothing that could even remotely make you look bad. Go back and take things off that you may have that are inappropriate or could be taken that way. Colleges, employers, military recruiters, scholarship committees, and many others WILL LOOK at your social media when considering you for awards and jobs. Even liking something that is questionable can reflect on you as a person. It can make or break your chances of getting what you need for the future!
Get a notebook and make a list of any community service you have done since you've been in high school...anything you've done to help others (food drives, car washes for church, volunteer work at the animal shelter, etc.). You will have to put this in many applications, and so much weight is now put on this aspect of your life.
Write (yes, I said write during the summer) an essay that will be a basis of all your application essays. Things to be included are: introduction of who you are and where you're from, what your goals are for the future, how you plan to achieve them, what financial need you may have to meet to get there, etc. If you will get this written and get it proofread (I'll do that for you if you'll email it to me), then you'll only have to change a few things to make it work for each application.
Make sure you stay in the loop with everything that is happening during your senior year by making sure you check your email, signing up for Mrs. April's daily announcements, and staying connected with your senior sponsors!