Recent College Grads Guide High-Schoolers

October 25, 2008, Lancaster Online.com - By Brian Wallace

Shane Charles, a senior at Manheim Central High School, had no idea what he wanted to do after high school.Ryan Faust, a senior at Donegal High School, figured he'd work at Weis Markets after graduation and decide about college later.

Now Ryan is applying for admission to four colleges to pursue a law-enforcement career, and Shane is considering five schools in hopes of training for a "dream job" as an ecologist.

What inspired the teens were two recent college graduates who helped them tackle the complicated and often overwhelming tasks of career and college planning.

Kate Jacobson, 24, and Alexis Rohrer, 26, are members of Keystone College Advising Corps.

Using a $1 million grant from the Jack Cooke Kent Foundation, Franklin & Marshall College partnered with Dickinson College and Millersville and Shippensburg universities to train advisers to work in 14 schools in southcentral Pennsylvania.

The new program targets students at schools with low college attendance rates, students whose parents likely did not get an education beyond high school.

Jacobson and Rohrer are assigned to Donegal, Manheim Central and Columbia high schools. Only about 50 percent to 60 percent of graduates of those schools receive any kind of postsecondary education. Only about 40 percent attend four-year colleges.

In Lancaster County, about 78 percent of high school graduates go on to further their education. The statewide average is 76 percent.

Jacobson, Rohrer and the six other advisers all graduated within the past three years from the participating colleges and universities.

As recent college grads just a few years older than the students they're working with, the advisers can be more effective than traditional school-based counselors, said Bob Freund, a retired Elizabethtown High School counselor who directs the program.

And unlike school counselors, who may be responsible for the academic and emotional well-being of as many as 300 students at a time, the Keystone advisers focus solely on careers and postsecondary education, he said.

The assistance is appreciated, said Manheim Central principal Arlen Mummau.

"Our school, like many others, has seniors who are undecided about what they want to do after high school, and sometimes you have to stir the pot a little," he said.

"(Jacobson) is young, she's fresh out of college herself, and I think the kids are interested in listening to what she has to say."

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The advisers have been meeting individually with every senior at the three schools to talk about career aspirations, grades, SATs and the college application process.

The focus is not just on four-year colleges but also associate-degree programs, trade and technical schools and the military. The program tries to overcome the mind-set that education ends at 12th grade - a common belief in rural areas like Donegal and Manheim.

"A fair amount of our parents believe that, hey, this is a good place to work and stay and a great community and may not push postsecondary education," Mummau said.

"I'm not saying it's our job to push it, but it's our job to show students there are options out there."

When Shane met Jacobson, he knew only that he liked biology.

After completing a career assessment and looking at college majors, he's now leaning toward enrolling in a fishery program at Mansfield University or a biology or ecology program at one of four other colleges.

"Now I know what sort of direction to go into," he said. "I had no direction at all going into senior year, really."

Before Ryan met with Rohrer, he knew he wanted to attend college but had little help with the daunting application process.

"Neither of my parents attended college, so I was on my own in figuring out what to do," he said.

He completed a career assessment with Rohrer and then started looking at schools with majors in law enforcement and criminal justice.

Rohrer helped him send his SAT scores to York College and Kutztown, Temple and Penn State universities.

She'll also help him fill out applications and financial aid forms.

Before talking with Rohrer, Ryan, who earns mostly A's, figured he'd graduate from Donegal and work his grocery store job, deciding later about college.

"Now it's more like I have a plan and a schedule," he said "Seriously, this has been a lot of help in terms of getting me started."

In addition to discussing careers and colleges, the advisers schedule college visits and help students prepare for the SAT, practice for job interviews and obtain transcripts and waivers for college application fees.

"Not everyone has a couple hundred dollars lying around so their kid can apply to eight different schools," Rohrer said.

So as not to overwhelm students, Jacobson waits until after seniors have settled on a major and a college before beginning the detailed discussions of financial aid.

"Some kids just leave here looking so drained because I just told them so much information, and I don't want them to be stressed out about it," she said.

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Jacobson - whom students have dubbed "the career lady" - plans to highlight her students' successes at the end of the year with a display she calls "Where in the World Are Manheim Central Graduates Headed?"

It will include acceptance letters from students who got into college, trade schools or the military and a giant map showing where they're going.

"It's going to be in the cafeteria so the underclassmen see what a big deal college is," she said. "It will reward the seniors because it's a lot of work to get in."

Jacobson should know. She's the first member of her family to attend a four-year college, and she was hardly a stellar prospect. She got B's and C's at her rural high school in Littlestown and couldn't break 1000 (out of a possible 1600) on the SAT. She also had no idea what to study in college.

But she managed to get into Millersville University, and once she started attending classes, "the light bulb just clicked on," Jacobson said. "College was the best years of my life."

She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and later earned her master's degree in the same field.

"The No. 1 thing I hear students say is, 'My grades aren't very good, and my SATs aren't that good - I'll never get in," Jacobson said.

"I tell them, if I could get in, you can too.

"Now that I'm here and I've met a lot of the student body, I realize there's an incredible amount of potential here."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com