Mt. Pleasant

On Monday our group went to Mount Pleasant for the second time. Upon arrival there were only two students in the room for Explore. We had seen some of the other students in the program around in the hallways but had to chase them down to come to the room, and the guidance counselor made a reminder announcement. Once all of the students arrived we counted how many were there and realized that there were just as many Explore leaders as students, so we worked one on one with a student at a computer desktop. I noticed how antiquated the computers were and how long it took for the students to log in. The lesson for the day was introducing the students to the College Board website and having each one create an account. I worked with a freshman girl and after we created her account we explored the website looking at topics such as planning for college, the application process,what courses to take in high school, financial aid, and the SAT. College Board also has a resource that allows you to search for colleges based on location, major of interest, extra-curricular activities, public or private school, and a 4-year or 2-year option. Results included a list of colleges matching your needs with some information about each school and a link to the school's website. Originally the girl I was working with had said she wanted to go to RISD because she was interested in fashion design, but after browsing the website we came across the demographics of the school and she noticed that it was only 1% African American, and so she said she no longer wanted to go to RISD anymore. This was really saddening for me. After inquiring with her about whether she wanted to stay in Rhode Island or maybe go away somewhere to school, she had mentioned she wanted to go away because her family had been in Rhode Island their whole lives and had never moved anywhere else.I got the vibes that maybe she had not had the opportunity to travel with her family many places, or that Rhode Island was all she had experienced. For me, this is much different than my experiences growing up. My family had the resources we needed to be able to travel and see new places. She also shared with me that she would like to go to Florida because her sister lived there, and her sister was going to school there but had to drop out because she was having a baby. We also looked at tuition rates of schools, and she was really shocked at how much it costs to go to school. She kept saying, "wow, I feel bad for my parents". I showed her how school websites give you information about how to apply for financial aid, and what scholarships are available. We also looked at the application process for school, and what specific things schools ask for when applying. For example, recommendation letters, portfolios, SAT scores, and essays. I think we accomplished a lot in the hour we worked on College Board, and I definitely opened up her eyes to new ideas concerning college. It seemed she knew very little about colleges and the process used to apply, so I would like to spend more time talking about this in Explore and give the students some background knowledge.