By Jeff Ursino, Trustee, PVUSD
Recently, I got the opportunity to participate in a meeting about the college readiness of high school senior’s graduating locally. One thing that really stood out in my mind during the meeting was that in the next five years 90% of all jobs will require at least a 2-year college degree.
It is because of statistics such as this that for the first time in over a decade Aptos High School has opened and fully staffed the College and Career Center. The new College and Career Coordinator, Adilene Bobadilla, is currently delivering to all seniors a set of presentations on different colleges and universities, providing college information to the entire student body, and planning field trips to local universities for interested students.
This year these efforts have helped to significantly increase the number of college representatives that have come or are planning to visit Aptos High to meet with both staff and students. As of last week, over 45 universities will be visiting Aptos High in the next two months. If you know of a student who is interested in meeting with a university representative, please have the student visit the Aptos High College Center or visit the Navience website (www.naviance.com).
The Navience website is a college and career readiness tool that aligns student’s strengths and interest to post-secondary goals. For the first time high school students in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District have access to this site.
In addition to the College and Career Center being up and running, Aptos High has recently hired a Family Involvement Coordinator who is providing parent training and one-on-one parent support. I encourage every family at Aptos High to visit the new center and see some of the new offerings the Center has to offer and to start to work directly with the Family Involvement coordinator.
Of course, we all know that college readiness does not start in high school. If we are going to have students who are not only ready, but excited about the prospect of going to college, we must start at the elementary school level. To build this excitement and get students to start to think about college the Pajaro Valley Unified School District has rolled out college week at our local elementary schools.
During this week, picked by the local elementary school, teachers will be sharing information about their own college experience and alumni of the school who are currently in college are going to be invited back to discuss what college is like. In addition both students and staff will be encouraged to wear clothing with either a college mascot or emblem on it. These efforts are all to encourage students to think about college and what they will need to do to get there.
The district is putting more resources and ideas to get our local students both college and career ready but in truth if our local students are going to be successful it will start at home. Parents and caregivers who discuss college with their children, work with teachers and stress the importance of education are helping to build a desire within their children to continue their education after high school. In the end what we all want is to make sure our local students are ready to face the challenges of an ever-changing work environment. By building the College and Career Center at Aptos High and rolling out College week at our local elementary schools the district is helping to build a culture of college readiness.
That is something we all can be proud of.