RHS Counselors Connection
October 2018 Edition
Welcome!
Stay Informed...
RHS School Counseling Website: Click here for the New School Counseling Website
Subscribe to our Remind Text messaging service for specific grade levels- see Parent Resources Page
College, Scholarships and Social Media?
NACAC Regional College Fair
To register for the event or to view the workshop schedule CLICK HERE
Saturday, Oct 13, 2018, 09:00 AM
The Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, Water Street, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Federal Application for Student Financial Aid (FAFSA) Opened October 1st
ATTENTION ALL SENIORS: All seniors who may attend training, college, or university after graduation should complete the FAFSA as soon as possible.
CLICK HERE to apply for a FSA ID (both student and parent need to do this prior to completing the FAFSA)
CLICK HERE to apply for Federal Financial AidWhy is completing the FAFSA so important?
Many middle class families don’t want to bother with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known to its friends as the FAFSA, because they have heard that only students from families earning less than about $50,000 get federal grants. But the FAFSA also qualifies students of all income levels for lots of other financial aid that is awarded no matter how much, or little, the family makes.
Here are three reasons that even the wealthiest families should fill out a FAFSA:
1. To qualify for other kinds of scholarships and grants.Some financial aid programs require a FAFSA even though they award aid without regard to family income. The Tennessee Promise, for example, offers all state residents two years of free tuition at a state community or technical college regardless of income, but it requires a FAFSA to make sure students maximize their federal aid first.
Some colleges also use FAFSA information as a deciding factor for students who are on the borderline for merit scholarships, says Robert J. Massa, senior vice president for enrollment and institutional planning at Drew University. An admissions officer looking at a student’s FAFSA may decide that, “They just miss qualifying based on need, and the student is close to qualifying for merit aid, so let’s award a merit scholarship because the family perceives a need” for aid, he explained.
Finally, even affluent families can be “needy” when college costs $65,000 a year. So some colleges, state agencies, and scholarship foundations require the FAFSA to award scholarships and grants to middle- and upper-middle-class students attending expensive schools. The most generous private colleges, for example, award need-based aid to some students from families earning more than $200,000 a year.
2. To get cheap, forgivable federal loans. The FAFSA automatically qualifies the student for low-interest and forgivablefederal student loans–the most attractive kind of student loans available. It also is the first step to qualify a parent for a federal parent PLUS loan, which can be used to help pay college costs.
3. To gain an admissions edge. In some cases, filing a FAFSA can actually help a student gain admission to a college, says Lucie Lapovsky, former president of Mercy College and now an educational consultant. Admissions officers know that students hoping for aid who don’t submit FAFSAs to the college are less likely to enroll, she says. So some schools may not want to waste an admissions letter on a student they think is unlikely to attend.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Bullying is unwanted aggressive behavior that involves real or perceived power imbalance and is repeated or has potential to be repeated over time. This includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. Clay County District Schools is committed to ensuring that students have a safe and respectful environment to achieve academic success at all times. During this month we are excited to join our efforts with schools and organizations around the world to educate and raise awareness of bully prevention. The capstone event of the month is Unity Day on Wednesday, October 24th when everyone is encouraged to wear orange as a visible statement that we believe no one should ever experience bullying.
Watch this clip for five reasons to celebrate Bullying Prevention Month.
Positive Panther Project
October- The Power of Positivity, Optimism, and Open-mindedness
Join the PPP Advisory Council
Rules to Living a Positive Life!
1. Be comfortable in your own skin. The first step to becoming happy is to feel comfortable in your own skin. Everyone was born with a flaw. No one is perfect. Accept yourself with what you’re born with whether it be your background, your skin, your nose, your eyes, your hair, your freckles, your breast, or the size of your private part. You have to accept yourself for who you are and love yourself. If you find it hard because other people discriminate or make judgements about you, distance yourself from people who are shallow and narrow-minded. You are better than that. Prove to them and to yourself that you are capable and talented in so many other ways. Surround yourself with people who value the same things as you and leave the people with bad attitudes behind.
2. Appreciate what you have and never compare yourself with others. You will never be truly happy if you keep looking outside and wish you have what you don’t. The grass always seems to be greener on the other side but that does not mean it’s actually greener. If you keep wishing, hoping, expecting for something else and don’t feel happy with what you already have, you will always feel miserable and feel like something is missing in your life. Worse if you keep comparing yourself to others, wishing your life was like theirs; your face and body were like theirs; your family was like theirs; your partner was like theirs, you will feel the jealousy burning within you. While comparing yourself to others in a healthy dose as to set yourself a benchmark of success or accomplishment can be motivating, doing so with jealousy burning within is not.
If you can live simply and appreciate what you have, acknowledge that everyone is different, and stop comparing yourself to others, you will experience joy and happiness in everyday life.
3. See the positive in every situation. You will always run into unfortunate situations in life that are outside of your control. You can choose to feel sad, annoyed, angry, or stressed about the situation or turn it around and focus on the positive. You can choose to be stuck in a bad situation or let go, move on, and start anew. Learn from a failure or a bad experience and never repeat the same mistake. Every setback and bad situation in life teaches you something. Growth doesn’t happen in comfort. Take it as an opportunity to train your mind to be stronger, more resilient, and more equipped to be able to deal with things life throws at you.
4. Let go of your need to control. Control makes you feel secure. But at the same time, with control you also lose freedom. Confusing isn’t it? When you try to control your life, situations, and sometimes others, you do so because you want to feel more secure. However, when you feel more secure because you take control of it, you lose control of yourself and very likely of those you try to control. This is because you become dependent on the feeling of having control. And it can drive you crazy because things don’t always go as planned. Trying to control things will not only drive other people away which will make you panic even more when that happens, but it also hinders you from achieving happiness from within.
5. Drop the resentment within. Most of the time you hold onto anger because you believe it would make the person you’re mad at upset and realize that they have done something wrong. But the fact is that you are actually hanging yourself up on something that’s burning you within. When you’re mad at someone, the pain is onto yourself more than it is onto the person you’re mad at. When you hate someone, the fire is within your own mind.
No matter what one does to you — hurt you, look down on you, underestimate you, backstab you, abuse you, or cheat on you — when you hold the hatred, you hold the hurt. Only when you learn to let go, you let your soul free from the pain. No matter what it is that caused them to do certain things to you, the best thing you can do is to let go.
If you’re struggling to let go, start with meditation. Even meditation is hard because you need to control yourself not to think about anything while meditating — but that’s the key! Being able to control one’s thoughts and focus, and keep one’s mind at peace strengthens the mind’s muscles — this is the secret power of meditation.
6. Live in the moment. I believe that one of the reasons little kids and happy couples on dates are happy is because they live in the moment. They focus on what is happening in front of them and pay attention to the person they are with. When you live in the moment and do your best, you just feel happy. Why wouldn’t you? You don’t worry about the future, neither do you feel sad about the past. Take every waking hour as it comes and do what you are supposed to do and complete what you’re supposed to complete. Stop overanalyzing or trying to predict and plan things too far. The only constant in life is change. Just live in the moment and do your best.
7. Avoid overanalyzing. This is what a lot of us do — overanalyzing things from relationships to career and finances. Overanalyzing is dwelling on the thought about something, thinking about it over and over, trying to dig deeper and deeper, because somehow you believe it could end up giving you a way out. When in doubt, overanalyzing somehow gives us comfort. Most of the time, we never actually get an answer but a set of worries. In order to avoid overanalyzing, we need to be more outspoken with people whom we have doubts about, take things as they come, and listen closely to our intuition.
8. Stop worrying about the future. Many of us worry. We worry about our future — about our career, health, living, finances, and about the people we love. We worry because we are scared. However, worrying doesn’t make anything better unless we stop worrying and start taking actions towards our goals. If you’re worried about your health when you get older, then you should start eating healthy and exercising regularly. If you’re worried about your finances, then you should start saving up for the rainy days. If you’re worried about your kids, then encourage them to take actions to help you ease your worries.
Remember that worrying about your loved ones doesn’t actually make them better. It only affects your health and your blood pressure. Your loved ones will need to take actions themselves. All you can do is to encourage them and help them move towards the right direction.
9. Have an open mind. Having a narrow mind can hurt you more than you think because naturally we as humans don’t like being disapproved of. We don’t like feeling like we’re wrong because it makes us feel rejected and unaccepted. So if you don’t have an open mind which means you stand firmly on your beliefs and ideas and oppose others who think otherwise, you will feel extremely agitated and uncomfortable when people with different beliefs and ideas are presented in front of you.
On the other hand, if you have an open mind, you wouldn’t mind hearing about the different beliefs. In fact, you would embrace the difference, want to understand it better, and become adaptable and flexible in your approach. You wouldn’t have to fight with yourself in accepting others. You’d feel at ease with differences and feel positive about change.
Classroom Resources for Focusing on Character
Character.org- High school lesson plans
Random Acts of Kindness- High School Character Ed Unit
40 Kindness & Empathy Activities for the Classroom
Making Caring Common Initiative- Harvard University
Family Resources for Developing Character and Family Values
Making Caring Common Initiative- Harvard University
College Corner
Eckerd College
Eckerd College is a private four-year coeducational liberal arts college at the southernmost tip of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. The college is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Full Time Undergraduate enrollment is 1,850 students and they offer Division II athletics. Eckerd’s waterfront campus sits on the Gulf peninsula of Florida’s west coast. Students live in one of nine traditional and two apartment-style residence halls, some with views of the water. They even have pet-friendly housing. Eckerd College students can also choose to participate in over 300 hundred different study abroad programs around the world.
Eckerd has 41 majors for students to choose from. There top three majors are Marine Science, Environmental Studies and International Business.
Career Planning & Spotlight
Respiratory Therapists
What they do:
Assess, treat, and care for patients with breathing disorders. Assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care modalities, including the supervision of respiratory therapy technicians. Initiate and conduct therapeutic procedures; maintain patient records; and select, assemble, check, and operate equipment.
On the job, you would:
· Provide emergency care, such as artificial respiration, external cardiac massage, or assistance with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
· Monitor patient's physiological responses to therapy, such as vital signs, arterial blood gases, or blood chemistry changes, and consult with physician if adverse reactions occur.
· Set up and operate devices, such as mechanical ventilators, therapeutic gas administration apparatus, environmental control systems, or aerosol generators, following specified parameters of treatment.
St. Johns River State College and Florida State College at Jacksonville both offer Associate in Science Degrees in this field.
For more information on this career and others like it go to https://www.mynextmove.org/profile/summary/29-1126.00
Scholarships 101
Now is the time to set up accounts on the scholarship databases listed in the left hand column. Start applying early and for as many as you can. A lot of scholarship money goes unused because students don’t apply. Also check with the schools you plan to apply. They each have their own scholarship applications and deadlines.
Federal Financial Aid
The FAFSA opened October 1st. ALL SENIORS WHO MAY ATTEND ANY POST-HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING, COLLEGE, OR UNIVERSITY NEED TO COMPLETE THE FAFSA. Start by requesting your FSA ID. You will need this to complete your FAFSA. CLICK HERE for directions. BOTH you and your parent must request a FSA ID prior to completing the FAFSA. You will select to complete the 2019-2020 FAFSA (this is the year you would start training or college classes). Even if you don't meet the income requirements for a Pell Grant, we encourage you to apply because most institutions use the FAFSA as a way to determine how much aid they can give as well.
Florida Bright Futures
Information about eligibility requirements can be found at the Florida Bright Futures website. Be sure to check your specific status at Florida Shines. Your State ID is your social security number with an X at the end. If you have questions about your status, see your School Counselor.
Institutional Financial Aid
Each college or university also has their own sources of financial aid. You need to check with each school individually to see if they have a financial aid application.
Scholarship Databases
There are several online scholarship databases that provide secure links to apply for private scholarships. We recommend that you use one (or many) of these to ensure that your private information is not stolen. Googling scholarships can lead you to scam or phishing sites that target students for identity theft.
http://studentscholarships.org/
http://tuitionfundingsources.com/
http://college-scholarships.com/
http://www.militaryscholar.org/index.html
Private Local Scholarships
As local organizations contact us with scholarship applications, we will post them on the RHS Scholarship Bulletin. Be sure to check it out often for updates. Here is a sample of what is available right now.
Young Arts Awards Competition
Artists in grades 10-12 or ages 15-18 on December 1, 2018 may apply. The Young Arts competition includes cinematic arts, dance, design arts, jazz, music, photography, theater, visual arts, voice, and writing. Awards range from $250 - $10,000. Go to www.youngarts.org/apply. Deadline is October 12, 2018.
Florida’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and contests 4-YEAR FLORIDA PREPAID SCHOLARSHIP. Governor Rick Scott and First Lady Ann Scott have invited all Florida students to participate in the annual Hispanic Heritage Month essay contests, which will be centered around the theme, “A Celebration of Innovative Hispanic-American Leaders.” Students in grades 4-12 can earn a 4-YEAR FLORIDA PREPAID SCHOLARSHIP through the essay contest. To learn more about Florida’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and contests, visit www.FloridaHispanicHeritage.com. Deadline All entries must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, October 15, 2018.
American Public Power Association
High school seniors planning to pursue a certificate or degree that could lead to a career at an electric utility. Awards $2,000. Go to www.publicpower.org/deed-funding-students. Deadline October 15, 2018.
Horatio Alger Scholarship
If integrity, determination and courage describe you - you have what it takes to be a Horatio Alger Scholar. Our scholarship reward students who possess the character to succeed in life. We help students overcome a financial barriers of pursuing higher education. To qualify, you must have at least a 2.0 GPA and require financial assistance to attend college. Go to www.scholars.horatioalger.org. Deadline is October 25, 2018.
Voice of Democracy- VFW Scholarship Essay Contest
Since 1947, the Voice of Democracy has been a Veterans of Foreign Wars’ (VFW) premier scholarship program. Each year, nearly 40,000 high school students compete for more than $2 million in scholarships and incentives. Students compete by writing and recording an audio essay on an annual patriotic theme. This year’s theme is, Why My Vote Matters. For all the details, pick up a flyer in the RHS School Counseling scholarship box. Entries will be submitted to the local VFW 5968 Post at 187 Aurora Blvd. Orange Park, FL 32073. Deadline is October 31, 2018.
American Academy of Chefs
High school seniors accepted into an accredited, post-secondary college with a major in either culinary or pastry arts or be an ACF registered apprentice. Awards $2,500 renewable each year. Go to www.acfchefs.org/ACF/Education/Scholarships. Deadline October 31, 2018
Wendy’s High School Heisman
High school seniors currently involved in one of the 47 recognized sports. Leadership in schools, minimum 3.0 GPA. Awards range from $1,000 to $10,000. Go to www.wendyshighschoolheisman.com/application/are-you-eligible. Deadline October 2018.
Student Resources
SAP (Student Assistance Program) Counselor- Kim Barrera
The Student Assistance Program works with identified adolescents to screen for risk factors that may interfere with a student’s ability to positively cope with life challenges and stressors. The program consists of individual and/or group prevention activities where teens work with an SAP team member 1-4 times a month on a short term basis. SAP does not provide direct therapy services but can assist students with accessing services through Clay Behavioral Health. You can ask any of your teachers to go see Ms. Barrera in Building 5 room 554 or you can talk with your School Counselor to be referred for services.
Military Life Counselor- Atrews Bell
Mr. Bell provides a variety of services and/or referrals for students with a parent/guardian on active duty or retired military. This can include academic assistance, personal counseling, help with transitioning from school to school and much more. See your School Counselor for more details or stop by Mr. Bells office in Building 1 room 140.
Contact Us!
Pre-IB & IB Students
(904) 336- 8912
Lori.feathergill@myoneclay.net
Maria Littlejohn
Student Last Names A-E
(904) 336- 8904
Maria.littlejohn@myoneclay.net
Jackie Welch
Student Last Names F-L
(904) 336- 8903
Jacquelyn. welch@myoneclay.net
Margo Whyte
Student Last Names M-R
(904) 336-8902
Tabbatha Johns
Student Last Names S-Z
(904) 336-8906
Tamara Mansel-Tucker
College & Career Coach
(904) 336-8889