College Admissions Season
Hello VOICES friends! This is Katie (writing director) again. I’m sitting here at my desk in our EXTREMELY COLD office staring at the cork board on my bookshelf. I’ve got my VOICES press pass hanging up, a list of everyone’s phone extensions, a business card for a VOICES alum’s portrait photography business…and a list of due dates for youth leader Lilliana Lopez’s letters of recommendation for college.
Must. Get. Those. Done.
It is the dreaded season of college applications, and VOICES seems to be a place a lot of youth come to for help. Which is neat. If you think about it, we have whole groups of highly educated, compassionate adults who are practically begging to help kids with their college plans. Not a bad situation to be in if you’re 17 and planning on going to a 4-year university but don’t necessarily know how to get from Point A to Point B. Or you just need a kick in the bum to get you going. Either way, we’re here and ready to help.
I remember applying to colleges in the upstairs extra bedroom of my parents’ house in Illinois. I had a plastic file folder labeled with all of the schools I wanted to go to—Colby College, Macalester, Rolla, the oh-so-dreamy-but-way-too-expensive-Brown, Michigan, Illinois—and I did all the easy parts first. I filled out my name, age, and various volunteering experiences. Then I got stuck on the essay.
What is the most challenging obstacle you have had to overcome and what is its significance in your life? What is the greatest challenge your generation will face and how will you handle this challenge? How do you foresee the world of 2020? What is an issue of great personal importance to you? How do you describe yourself as a human being?
Hard, huh. If you’ve already been to college, do you remember how you figured out your personal statement? Did you write drafts? Stay up all night and turn in whatever you managed to pull together? Some kids have a favorite English teacher who’s willing to help them. Others head to test prep centers. I was lucky—my parents were English teachers (!). But a lot of youth don’t have these options.
One of my favorite things about working at VOICES is all of the mentoring that happens in between publishing stories. I love helping out with the college application process because our youth are already prepared: they already know how to write personal essays that connect their experience to larger community issues. They already know how to use their own personal experience to support an argument. And to boot, they are funny, smart, and see the world in ways that many of us can’t. Take that, personal statement.
This coming Tuesday, December 8, AmeriCorps Leader (and photography mentor) Ashley Raasch and ASU Social Work Intern Lisa Bartkowski will host a college prep night from 4:30-5:30pm at the VOICES office for current VOICES youth. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for all of our seniors who are in the middle of the application process! We’ll make sure to keep you updated on their all of their successes.
