The New-and-Improved Collegewise Los Angeles is Open for Business
In spite of a lack of significant photographic evidence to substantiate this claim, we really do have a new office space in Los Angeles. It’s big and beautiful with windows and offices and we can’t wait to show it off on our blog and in person.
space
We’re still working on more photographs. Arun has spent quite a bit of time agonizing over where to hang each individual college pennant and poster, if they should be arranged by color or college conference, and whether or not posters should be framed (and if so, with or without backing?–so many decisions!). In the interim, he didn’t want us taking pictures until those decorations are hung in the office with care.
Fellow counselor Jessica offered (read “begged”) Arun to just let her take care of it and the office has now come together quite nicely. It would be easy to get frustrated with Arun if he didn’t work seven days a week helping Collegewise kids and growing that office. Decorations or no decorations, those kids are in very good, hard-working hands with both Arun and Jessica. And that’s the beauty of writing blog posts about other people; whether I’m ribbing or praising, they don’t get to edit my work.
Several members of our Class of 2007 are now featured on our website after participating in our third annual Collegewise photo shoot.
Before they left for their respective colleges, these soon-to-be college freshman made one last trip to the Collegewise offices for some photos and Rubio’s fish tacos. Counselor Kyle McNichols ("General Kyle" as her students call her) gave our rookie models all the motivation they needed with encouraging directions like, "C’mon, let’s LOOK ALIVE, party-people!" And Kevin passed along some sage wisdom, telling the students they should remark often to their new college friends about the "modeling careers back in high school" that they’ve now given up to "focus on their college studies."
Next year, we’re going to offer photo shoots in our Los Angeles and New York offices so we can show where even more of our kids are excited to be heading off to college in the fall. You can view this year’s fresh faces on our homepage.
Irvine, CA Collegewise counselor Jennifer had an idea back in January. Given that Jennifer openly admits that she is much better at executing ideas than she is with generating new ones, she declared that very day that this would be her one good idea for 2007. Thankfully, it was a great one.
Our Irvine office hosted a series of Collegewise Senior Parent Back to School Nights last month and they were a rousing success. Each counselor hosted her own evening and gave the parents in attendance some updates on how the kids are progressing through the senior program. But more importantly, it gave us a chance to break some bread with our senior parents, answer their questions, and make sure they were feeling comfortable with their seniors’ progress.
The rest of us are now eagerly awaiting Jennifer’s next big idea for 2008.
Teacher and Counselor Training
Kevin spent a day in Los Angeles training teachers and counselors for high school AVID programs designed to encourage B, C, and even D students who have the desire to go to college and the willingness to work hard. Many of those students will be the first in their families to attend college, and many are from low-income or minority families. We’ll be returning to do some advanced college admissions training with the Orange County, CA AVID teachers and counselors this month.
Thanks again for reading, and we’ll be back next month.