HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL BROOKLINE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, PARENTS-GUARDIANS, STAFF, COMMUNITY MEMBERS!
I have again included an interesting and timely document -
The goals of the BHS Counseling/Guidance department and the school community overall is to encourage students to try their best in school while keeping their stress levels to a healthy level. If you are ever concerned about your student, please reach out to your student’s assigned school counselor.
Please check your BHS Counseling/Guid Dept Weekly Update email for copies of this coming Thanksgiving week special schedule. Please note minor time changes for the 9th grade blue cohort schedule.
Also look on that email for the special schedule for the December 11 ½ day for students too.
QUARTER 2 started last Tuesday, 11/12/18. Report cards were issued electronically to student/parent portals this past Friday 11/22. The midpoint of Quarter 2 is December 16 with IPRs being uploaded to portals on Thurs 12/19.
Career Coffee Talk - Nurse Practitioners - Wed December 4th X Block:
Please encourage students who may be interested in working in the medical field! Presentation will be in the College-Career Center, Room 279.
What is a Coffee Talk?
A Coffee Talk is a time for individuals in certain career fields to speak to students about their career path. Students have the opportunity to ask questions and learn from those in a field they may be interested in! It is also a great way to network and make connections in and around the BHS community.
Brookline Parents Organization to sponsor a colloquium on school leadership, to be held on December 7 at the Coolidge Corner School. It is designed to highlight great leadership and great leaders as Brookline searches for a new superintendent. There's good food; there's professional child care; and it's all free! Below is a link to the Eventbrite invitation- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/great-school-leadership-for-the-21st-century-a-colloquium-in-brookline-ma-tickets-81608590491
UPDATED BHS Clubs/Organizations Info for students:
BHS Marketing Club - The Brookline Literacy Partnership Club is holding a silent online action from December 1st to the 10th. The proceeds will go to building libraries in underdeveloped areas. Stay tuned for the link to the auction! (ends Dec 10)
Lunch Lounge is now scheduled FOR ALL LUNCHES EVERY WEEKDAY in Room 277 at the 115 campus and LUNCHES on Tuesdays at the OLS campus. This alternative lunch space offers a place for fun conversation, a board game competition, or having a quiet lunch. BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH. Any student can join for one lunch lounge or become a regular. Check it out!
Girls STEM Summit-Statewide 2020
DURING THE SUMMIT STUDENTS WILL:
Hear an inspirational keynote speech by a local female leader in a STEM field.
Meet successful women working as experts in STEM fields, and work directly with them in hands-on career-specific workshops.
Expand knowledge of STEM industries and emerging career paths.
Be inspired to continue taking STEM high school courses applicable to college STEM programs.
Date: Sunday, April 5, 2020
Fee: $70.00 (Scholarship available to students with limited resources to cover fee – please see your counselor or Counseling Coordinator Darby Neff-Verre in Room 285 for more info)
Location: Wentworth Institute of Technology
Time: 8:00 am–4:00 pm (lunch included)
https://juniortech.org/2020-girls-stem-summit-statewide/
SENIORS
Important message to seniors who have applied for EA/ED October/November applications – Please try to avoid INCs or need for grade changes for Quarter 1. The turnaround time for the guidance office to send out all Quarter 1 grades for early appliers is very short before all staff head out for Thanksgiving break in November.
READ YOUR EMAIL IF YOU HAVE APPLIED TO COLLEGE! Set up and check your portal for each college. If you have questions, students (not parents) should be contacting the admissions offices! See this article for more info about documents to college - http://admitted.nacacnet.org/wordpress/index.php/2018/11/21/parents-before-you-yell-at-your-childs-school-counselor/
Thinking about an alternative plan to 4 year college? You are not alone! Almost 10% of last year’s BHS graduates planned to attend a 2 year technical or community college, work full time, or considered the military. Please see Kate Cordner Kennedy, the BHS Career Counselor in Room 279 or 280 for more info. If she is not available when you stop by (since she is also working with 9th graders at the OLS campus), please leave her a note!
Also for students applying Early Decision- It is your responsibility to notify your counselor about your ED contract and remind the counselor to sign off on your contract. When you hear back with the college ED decision, please also inform your counselor. We cannot send any grades to other colleges until we know your ED contract no longer applies (ie you did not get accepted to your ED school).
Transcript release / Teacher-Counselor Recommendation Deadlines
To best support every senior in their college admissions process, we require that all seniors meet the deadlines below for communicating to both teacher and counselors re: recommendations.
UPDATE: If you have college applications with Dec 1 or 15 deadlines – your transcript release form and other important documents are now overdue. Counselors and department staff are working hard during and outside of the school day to get your documents ready for these deadlines. If you got your completed transcript release to your counselor by BHS deadlines and did FERPA and “matching” steps with your Naviance and Common App accounts, then we will meet your deadlines. If you did these steps after BHS deadlines, we will do our best to meet your deadline whenever possible. Thank you!
Upcoming due dates (attachment of dates below):
College deadline BHS Deadline
January 1 Tuesday, November 26
SENIORS AND JUNIORS
Seniors - Have questions about your Common Application? Need essay help? Not sure how to send your scores to colleges? Having trouble matching your Common App to Naviance? Still deciding on colleges to apply to?
Juniors- Starting to research colleges? Wondering whether to take the SAT, ACT, or go test-optional? Thinking about when you should take these tests?
Make an appointment with your counselor (email or leave a note, if needed) OR see Mr Libenzon, BHS College Counselor, in College-Career Center 279 or office 280
Avoid FAFSA mistakes when completing the Federal Financial Aid form in the Fall of your senior year-
http://admitted.nacacnet.org/wordpress/index.php/2019/10/25/avoiding-fafsa-mistakes/#more-3849
Naviance access for BHS parents/guardians - BHS does not provide separate parent accounts to Naviance. Parents are encouraged to use their students' username and passwords. It is
possible to log in to naviance as BHS guest, click on "Log in as Guest" from the Naviance website and the password is "bhs" (all small letters).
JUNIORS
Congratulations to the 350 students who took the PSAT on Saturday 10/19! Please pay attention to the email you provided with your online registration since scores will be directly reported to you via that email around mid December. The BHS counselors and College/Career Counselors will begin focusing on the post high school/college planning with juniors in December and January.
- Junior Assembly with Lenny Libenzon and counselors on Dec 12 advisory – REQUIRED for all juniors to attend
- Junior Seminar Round 1 will happen through January/early Feb in advisories
- Junior Seminar Round 2 will happen in March during MCAS mornings. More details on times/dates to come soon!
PSAT results will likely be available online via the College Board website approximately during the week of Dec 9, 2019. Students who took this practice test should be receiving an email from the College Board to announce that scores are available and to provide directions for access. College Board accounts should have been created by students, so we have no way of knowing their username/passwords. If a student cannot access their account, they should try the "forgot the password" feature first. If that doesn't work, Lenny Libenzon can help students with access when they drop by College-Career Center 279 or his office 280. Last year, issues arose when a student's parents used their own emails to create the account.
SOPHOMORES AND JUNIORS
Add this event to your calendar - Junior Year Timeline and Standardized College Admissions Testing presentation – Thursday, December 12, 2019 from 6:30-8:30 pm, in the BHS Auditorium. Lenny Libenzon, the BHS College Counselor in the Counseling/Guidance Department will go over the Junior Year Post High School Planning Timeline and Drew Heilpern from Summit Educational Group will talk about the different types of standardized tests that our juniors/seniors take (SAT, SAT Subject Tests, ACT, AP). This night is open to junior and sophomore students and their parents/caregivers. Please note that BHS does not specifically promote any outside testing prep companies, but appreciates their information sharing for this event.
FRESHMEN
9th grade counselors will be joining HUBs starting this pre-Thanksgiving week for CTO (Counselors Take Over!) to offer circles on “Showing Gratitude and Appreciation Circle”
We encourage all 9th grade students to meet their assigned guidance counselor. Please encourage your 9th grader to stop by their counselor’s office between classes or during HUB or X block if needed. Students can also email their counselor to set up a meeting time - [email protected]