Welcome to high school!

The first week of school is a busy time for everyone. Learning where to go and reorganizing our brains for school habits take some time after the summer. Most every new school year starts with some goal setting and our course will be no different. The introduction to CollegeEd will introduce Roadtrip Nation and you will create some goals for the near future. You will reflect on them for your weekly assignment. It might be helpful to you to create folders on your computer for the course and to keep copies of the PDF’s or worksheets from the course. You can do your answers over the PDF’s or use a word document to create your answers. Keep a copy of your work so you can look back at your responses.

About this course

The field of college counseling is built on some foundational beliefs, which may or may not be true for you. We (counselors) like to believe that when you the student are looking for institutions to attend one day, you are doing so from a deep understanding of why you would be a good fit on campus. I like that idea, but I know from my experience working in Asia where rankings often take the priority in any search of universities that fit can mean different things for different people.

Assuming you are taking this course early in your high school career, or as a young adult (or pretending to be) I do think there is value in figuring out as much as you can about yourself before making any major life decisions. This could also be true for adults, there is an entire industry of self-help books to point out ways adults can learn more about themselves and to start living a more authentic life. The goal of a competent counselor at your school or if you are doing it for yourself, is to help you know who you are so you can move on to the what and where, when and why.

One of the goals I have in creating this course is so you can take ownership of your journey through life whenever possible. I feel autonomy and agency are important for teens and adults so that is the framework we will be working with.

This particular course will take you through activities for you to assess and learn about your personality traits and values. Some of these will be useful in your university search or potential essays and statements, but those are secondary to helping you define your ingredients and becoming more aware of your identity. Post-puberty, it’s time to start acknowledging and accepting the traits you appreciate about yourself. It is also time to start recognizing the actions and interactions that are not doing you any favors so you can begin to eliminate negativity or roadblocks to your success (that you can control). Recognizing what is in your control and what is not will also be useful for your well-being and self-esteem.

I hope you find the following content useful.

Last modified: Thursday, 2 June 2022, 3:37 PM