Coach’s Corner

Summer 2024

Freshmen/Sophomores

Is it too early for you to start preparing for college in your freshman or sophomore year of high school? No, it is always good to consider your strengths toward college development. You can do this in exploration of subject matter within your high school coursework. Follow these guidelines as you move through each year of high school:

Take courses in various subject matter to see if there may be an ability to move in a direction towards career fields. There are roughly 16 career fields that contain most all careers, and if a student can begin to narrow these down, it will save time and money while in college trying to figure this out.
In addition, during this time, students should be developing better study techniques, as they try out harder, more rigorous course material. Learning time-management skills, keeping a to-do list, and studying over time versus the night before, are all ways that will help the student academically as they move through high school into college.
Explore interests: freshman and sophomore years are the perfect time for students to explore their interests through an array of extracurricular activities. Whether within their school community or outside of it, students should engage in various clubs and activities to discover their core passions and interests.

Juniors

Begin to view your resume as a way to show colleges your passion and strengths in subject matter. A resume is a perfect way to develop an extracurricular profile that colleges will view in support of academics. Considering such activities as clubs, volunteerism and leadership are key in promoting oneself. Think of ways to bring out these types of strengths in what you are already doing, in addition to, adding something new over the summer.

Ways to promote yourself through development of leadership skills:

Time Management: A leader must be willing to take on a variety of responsibilities. Knowing when to prioritize certain tasks and ensuring deadlines are met, is key. Start to develop a checklist to help in obtaining goals toward a process or project you are taking on. Think of how you can describe your commitment in this way on your resume.
Goal-Setting: Leaders set goals to guide their progress. They see problems as opportunities and breaking them up into smaller projects can help in managing them.
Communication: Communication takes many forms: speech, text, photography, video, and body language. No matter the platform, effective communication is key in spreading your message and generating a following. I recommend practicing recitation of verbal communication to make sure you are speaking clearly and honestly about what is important to you. Also, learning vocabulary terms is helpful in communication with others to express ideas.

Seniors – 2024 Graduates

With your commitment to a college, this is the time to move forward in making a connection with your college by signing onto the school’s website to chat with other students across the country that are attending. In addition, look for freshman experiences that may help to pave the way into the college with a smaller group of students; promoting friendships before classes actually start. Many colleges have freshman orientation, and outdoor experiences and groups that meet on campus or offsite a few weeks before the college starts for the year. Join activities and groups prior to school and also that meet during the year to find new friends that have similar interests. These activities can go on your college resume which includes your high school participation, as well. You will use your resume throughout college in finding part-time jobs, internships, and teaching assistant positions. At the end of sophomore year of college, you will remove your high school material and just showcase your college-related activities. This new, updated resume will be the one that you present on your first job interview at the end of your senior year of college!