Sam Barlow’s College and Career Center is a place to plan your future and map out your goals with the guidance of Tia Malony and Linda Lee Fraizer, the two College and Career Center coordinators. Malony and Fraizer both have different focuses when helping students. Malony, “…helps students with scholarships and planning your college path,” while Frazier, “…helps students figure out career goals and how to achieve them.” College and Career Center coordinators provide opportunities for students by using information from colleges throughout the United States, being involved in the community which connects them to scholarship opportunities for students, and organizing college visits in the library.
Even if you’re a freshman, the College and Career Center can help you prepare for college by setting up your four-year plan, presenting you with a variety of different courses and activities you can explore in your high school years, providing opportunities for field trips, internships, and attending any guest visits that might benefit you.
Sophomore year is a good year to continue to explore career activities and interests. Visiting the College and Career Center and discussing the future and its possibilities for you with the advisors can help them figure out how to best help you and present possible career exploration opportunities. Start to edit your four-year plan to your current aspirations.
Junior year is the year when you should start narrowing down your options and focusing on preparing for senior year and increasing your involvement in school and outside-of-school activities. This is the year where you decide if your path includes taking PSATS, SAT, and ACTs so it’s important to study for each of these tests if it does.
Once you get to senior year, you’re getting ready to graduate and complete your four-year plan. This year you’re applying for college and doing anything that you need to, such as applying for scholarships, continuing your career exploration, and deciding what you want to go to school for. It’s also important to continue meeting with the coordinators and to finish the to-do list for seniors which can be found in the College and Career Center.
To take advantage of the opportunities that the College and Career Center can provide for you it’s important to visit and communicate with the coordinators about your goals and interests. If the College and Career coordinator knows your interests they can be better prepared to offer you opportunities such as career field trips, scholarships, and jobs. They can help you decide what college best suits your interests and wants, such as how close or far you want to go, what you’re looking for in a college, and more. The coordinators provide the information for students and guide them with every step if they make an effort to visit, listen to the morning announcements, and read the bulletin board. Check your student email and read the monthly newsletter, which you can find in your student email.
