Voting Basics

Voting is an extremely important part of adult life. Throughout history, many groups have fought and suffered for the right to vote, yet in many elections, less than half of eligible voters show up to cast their vote. If you think about this for a minute, that means that elections are often decided by only a small percentage of eligible voters.

Read the article below on voting and answer the questions that follow:

9 Reasons We Need Young Voters More Than Ever (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Questions:

1) In your opinion, what is the most compelling reason to vote?

2) Why do you think many young people do not vote?

3) What are some ways you can get involved and make your voice heard?

4) Are you registered to vote? If not, you can register here . Even if you are not yet 18, you can pre-register, and you will be registered on your 18th birthday. If you are not registered to vote, discuss when you will register or why you have decided not to.

5) Look at the following resources, then list one thing you learned from these resources:
Headcount.org - Music,Democracy, Action: https://www.headcount.org/state/california/?section=voter-id 
Non-partisan information on the positions of members of Congress on various issues: http://votesmart.org
Voter’s Edge California - information on ballot measures and candidates: http://votersedge.org/ca 

How to Make Hard Choices

QW: Describe a time when you had to make a hard decision.

Choices are an integral part of our lives - there are small choices (e.g. what to eat for breakfast) and large choices (e.g. what career to choose, or where to go to college).  In her Ted talk, Ruth Chang explains what makes hard choices so hard, and what we can learn about ourselves as we make those choices.

Watch Ms. Chang's TED talk "How to Make Hard Choices", then answer the questions on this worksheet.

Cover Letter

QW: What skills or qualities do you have that will benefit a company you are working for?

A cover letter is a professional letter that is often required for job applications. The cover letter gives you a chance to discuss your unique talents and explain why you are a good fit for the job. It complements your resume by giving more detail about your skills, experience, and qualifications and should be tailored to the specific job you are applying to.

The cover letter should not simply restate your resume - the potential employer has already seen that and doesn't need another paper saying exactly the same thing. The purpose of the cover letter is to focus attention on particular aspects of your experience that relate to the job and your ability to do it well. It should also explain how hiring you will benefit the business or organization.

For this assignment, you will write a cover letter to apply to the job you identified in last week's assignment. Use a professional letter format (you can find templates on Google Docs) and use the following format:

• 1st paragraph - introduce yourself and state the job you are applying for
• Middle paragraphs - in one or more paragraphs, sum up your qualifications and skills and why you are a good fit for this job. You shouldn't just restate your resume, but rather highlight the specific skills and experience that are relevant for the job you are applying to.
• Final paragraph - thank the reader for considering your application and state that you look forward to hearing from them.

This article on monster.com gives a little more information about what a cover letter is and how to write one.

An example of a cover letter can be found at the link below:
Example cover letter

And here is a template you can use for your cover letter, if you find it useful:

Cover letter template

Turn in your completed cover letter to your EF.

Job Search

QW: Where would you look if you were looking for a job?

It used to be that when someone needed a job, they just walked around looking for help wanted signs, or looked in the help wanted section of the paper.  If they were looking for a job out of college, the path was often clear; there were a limited number of companies and it was obvious whom to contact. 

The job market has changed drastically over the past couple of decades.  Job searches are now mostly online, with websites where you can post your resume and look for jobs all over the country.  Many professional organizations have their own online job boards, for example edjoin for education jobs.  There are also generic sites like indeed.com, ziprecruiter.com, and monster.com.  Even Google seems to have its own job search engine; try googling a job you are interested in and see what comes up.

One great resource for local jobs is the Siskiyou Training and Employment Program (STEP) Siskiyou jobs list.  They update this list weekly with all sorts of jobs in the local area - the current list is 15 pages long.

Another good source for local jobs is the localhelpwanted.com . The closest to here would probably be reddinghelpwanted.com.

For this assignment, look over the job search resources below.  Find a job that looks interesting to you, and complete the cover letter worksheet specific to that job.  Next week, we will explore the cover letter in more detail.
Some useful job search resources:

• STEP Siskiyou County Job List
• Government Jobs in Siskiyou County
• Regional Help Wanted
• STEP office website

And here is the cover letter worksheet

Resume

QW: If you are applying for a job, what information do you think is important for your potential employer to know?

When you are applying for a job, most employers will ask for a resume listing your skills and experience.  Even if the job you are applying for does not require a resume, it can be helpful because it gives the potential employer a quick overview of your skills and work experience, both paid and volunteer.

But what if I don't have any experience?

You might have more than you think.  Don't get stuck on paid experience or the typical job working for a company.  On your resume you can include any volunteer work you've done, or odd jobs like babysitting and yard work.

Things to include in a resume:

Your resume should be limited to 1 page and should include the following information:

• Name and contact information
• Education (including expected graduation date for high school students)
• Experience
• References
• You may include other sections on your resume; some common topics include: 
• skills
• activities,
• awards,
• leadership experience
• other topics that are relevant to your experience or the particular job, including languages spoken, writing skills, technical skills, etc.

Formatting:

Your resume should look neat and be easy to read.  Make sure your formatting lines up in a visually appealing way (that is, when you indent, everything indented lines up). Avoid using fancy or whimsical fonts - your best bet is a classic font more or less like the one you are reading right now.

Some final tips:

Your resume is often the first impression you are giving a potential employer about your skills, professionalism, and attention to detail.  Make sure you proofread your resume carefully (and have someone else proofread it as well), typos, spelling mistakes and grammar errors make it look like either you don't know how to write properly or you don't care enough to check your work.  Either one looks bad to a potential employer.  In addition, the following tips will help you create a good resume:

• Keep your resume to one page (references may be on an additional page, but the main content should fit on one page) 
• Focus your skills and experience on the type of job you are applying to.  The more closely your experience and skills match the needs of the job, the more likely you are to get hired. It's good practice to customize your resume to the specific job you are applying to.
• Proofread, proofread, proofread
• Keep your language and the structure of your writing consistent.  That is, if for one example of experience you put "taught 3rd graders math", use the same tense and structure for all your experience; don't put "helping teach young children to read" on the next one. Use past tense (e.g. "taught") for both
• Make sure your finished, printed resume looks good.  If your printer is running out of ink, go to a copy center to print it, or have a friend with a good printer do so.

Assignment:

Using the tips above, other online resources, and this example resume as a guide, create a resume for yourself and turn it in to your EF.  Ask for feedback, and then revise your resume.

Scholarship Applications

QW: What are some of the benefits of scholarships?

Think about this for a minute.  Imagine you listened to your college advisor and applied for all the scholarships you were eligible for.  And let's say you received a scholarship for $1,000.  That might not seem like a whole lot, but let's think of it in terms of time.  If you're trying to avoid loans, without that scholarship you would have to find a way to come up with that money. If you're working for $10 per hour, that's 100 hours you need to work (probably more, if you factor in taxes and other payroll withholding).  That's 100 hours more over the course of the year, or 10 hours per month, or roughly 2.5 more hours each week that you have to devote to studying, spending time with friends, or trying to catch your breath from you busy life as a student.  Or if you do take out loans, at an average 5% interest, that $1000 would be $1221 you owe after 4 years - so that scholarship is worth even more than $1000. 

Now imagine you could get $5,000 in scholarships.  Using the numbers above, that would be an additional 12.5 hours per week you can study instead of working; if you were to take out that much in student loans, you would now owe $6,107 upon graduation.

That was kind of a long-winded way to convince you that free money is good.  Obviously, we all could use some free money to help with our college expenses.  Why then, do so many students not complete scholarship applications?

Watch this video on scholarships from Khan Academy

Assignment:

Part I: After reading the information above and watching the video, answer the following questions and turn them in to your EF:

1. Why do you think a lot of students don't apply for scholarships?
2. What would you say to a friend to convince them it is worthwhile to apply for scholarships?
3. What is something you learned about scholarships, how to search for them, or how/why to apply?

Part II: Using some of the scholarship search strategies discussed in the previous post, identify several scholarships to apply to.  Complete at least one scholarship application and turn in a copy to your EF.

Scholarship Search Strategies

QW: What is something special or unique about you?

When it comes to searching for scholarships, think about it as a part time job. If you spend 10 hours searching for and applying to scholarships, and you end up receiving $1000 in scholarships, you just made $100 per hour. Where else are you going to (legally) be able to make that much? Of course, there's no guarantee you're going to receive a scholarship, but if you don't apply, you're sure to not get anything.

Where to look:

There are a number of places you can look for scholarships. Below are some suggestions to get you started.

1. Start local

Research scholarships offered by local community organizations and businesses. These often have less competition that the larger regional, state, and national scholarships. Scholarships are often offered by local Rotary clubs, banks, businesses, etc. Alana has a list of scholarships each year that include many local scholarships. You can find that list here. 

1a. The biggies in our region:

The two major scholarship programs in this region are the McConnell Foundation Scholarship and the Ford Foundation Scholarship. The McConnell scholarship is $7500 per year, renewable for 4 years. The Ford Family Foundation Scholarship will cover 90% of your unmet need, but can only be used in California. Both of these are need based; if you qualify, you should definitely apply!

2. Scholarship search sites

There are number of websites where you can search for scholarships. For some of these sites, you may find a lot of scholarships that are either junk or not applicable to you, but there may be a few gems hidden in there, and it may be worth your time to look. Here are some that I've found to be good:
College Greenlight 
Big Future 
Niche 

3. Your institution

Most colleges and universities have their own scholarships. Sometimes the scholarship application is included in the admission application, sometimes it is a separate application. Do not wait until you know if you are admitted before completing the scholarship application; you might miss the due date. Once you know you are planning to apply, complete the scholarship application. Check out the website, and also the various departments within the college. That is, if you are planning to study engineering, see if there are specific engineering scholarships that the school offers.

4. Professional organizations in your intended career

Again, if you are planning on studying engineering, check out the national society of professional engineers, and see if they have any scholarships. Also check out other national engineering societies, as well as state organizations. The same goes for any other industry sector.

5. General Google search

If you want to study sociology, Google "scholarships for sociology". You might pick up something you missed in the other steps above. This is also where you tie in the topic from your quick write - what is something unique about you? If you play the tuba, search for scholarships for tuba players. If you're vegan, search for vegan scholarships. There aren't necessarily scholarships for every possible unique characteristic, but you won't know if you don't look.

OK, you've found some scholarships, now what?

Once you've identified your scholarships, you'll need to complete the applications. Know your due dates and give yourself plenty of time. Applications may include essays you need to write, transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc. Be sure to plan ahead, so you're not scrambling for an official transcript during a time your school is closed or on vacation.

Similarly, give the people you are asking for letters of recommendation enough time to write you a good one. It also helps to give them some background information on the scholarship, you are applying to, including the selection criteria, so they can write the best possible letter for you. If you have extracurricular activities that relate to the scholarship criteria, make sure your recommender knows about that. Finally, let them know the name of the person to address the letter to, as well as the due date.

Finally, enlist your family, friends, counselor, and/or English teacher to look over your essays and give you feedback. Obviously, it needs to be your work, but they might catch some errors or point out ways you can make your essays stronger.

Assignment:

Create a plan for your scholarship search. Complete the following, and turn in to your EF:

• List at least 2 places you will look for scholarships. 
• Identify the people you will ask for letters of recommendation. 
• Identify at least 3 scholarships you plan to apply for. Provide the scholarship name, link to the application, and due date
• Create a timeline for your scholarship application plan

Financial Aid Overview

QW: What do you know about financial aid?

Financial Aid Basics

A huge volume of information can be found at the federal student aid website , but here is the Reader's Digest version:

Calculating Financial Need:

When you complete the FASFA (which hopefully you have already done), the student aid commission will calculate an Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the amount the federal government thinks your family should be able to contribute to your education, based on your family's income and assets. The EFC is the same, regardless of which school you ultimately decide to attend. Your financial need, however, will be different for different schools. Financial need is the difference between the cost of attendance (COA) and your EFC:

Financial Need = COA - EFC

If the cost of attendance is greater than your EFC, you are determined to have financial need. The cost of attendance includes tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. The cost of attendance for most colleges and universities can be found on the institution's website. This need is then addressed in a variety of ways. You may receive some or all of the following:

• Pell grant (federal need-based grant)
• Cal Grant (state need- and merit-based tuition assistance)
• Other federal or state grants
• Institutional grants and scholarships
• Work Study
• Student Loans (more on these later)

Different schools have different policies on how they address your financial need. Some schools commit to meeting students' full financial need, others will offer what they can, but may leave a large gap in funding that the student and family need to figure out how to fill. For schools that meet student's full financial need, some include loans in the package, and others meet financial need entirely with grants and scholarships. You need to research the school's policy (and carefully review your financial aid offer) to know what to expect. Contact Alana if you would like help with this process. 

 

A quick overview of types of aid:

Grants:

Free money that does not need to be paid back, as long as you meet the requirements of the grant (generally taking, and passing, a certain number of credits, and keeping good academic standing). Grants generally are based entirely on financial need, and usually come from the federal or state government.

Scholarships:

Generally both need- and merit-based, but sometimes just merit-based without looking at need. This is also free money that does not need to be paid back. These may come from the college you are attending, from community organizations, or private companies or individuals. Requirements for scholarships vary based on who is providing the money and what they think is important.

Loans:

Money that needs to be paid back, with interest. Generally, student loans do not need to be repaid until after you graduate from college. There are two main types of federal student loans: subsidized and unsubsidized. Subsidized loans do not accrue interest while you are in school, so the amount you need to repay after you leave school is the amount you borrowed. Unsubsidized loans do accrue interest, so when you leave school, the amount you need to repay is actually more that what you borrowed, unless you make interest payments while you are in school.

Work Study:

This is money the government gives to the school to hire you to do work. For you, it looks and feels like a regular job - you go to work, you get a paycheck. What makes work study special is that it makes it easier for you to get a job on campus (because it is cheaper for them to hire someone with work study than someone without), and money you earn through work-study will not be counted against your financial aid the following year.

Special Circumstances:

Additional aid is available for specific populations.

Students who are (or have been) in foster care qualify for special grants.

Education benefits are also available for military personnel. Most branches of the military offer scholarships to complete your education, then allow you to enter the military as an officer. Of course, if you are not interested in a military career I don't recommend this as a way to fund your education, but if you are interested in the military, it's worth looking into these options. Most of these scholarships come with a commitment of military service after graduation (generally 5 years).

There are loan forgiveness programs for people planning to enter public service careers (like teaching). These programs will eliminate a portion of your student loans (so you don't have to pay back that part). One cautionary note: recently, these programs have been facing some problems, and many people who thought they would qualify for loan forgiveness are not receiving the benefits they thought they would.

Assignment:

Compete the financial aid worksheet

How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt

QW: What does it mean to be "in the driver's seat of your life"?

Activity:
Watch the video by Julien Gorden on How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt:

Then complete the questions on this worksheet. If you make a copy of it, you will be able to type on the worksheet.  Then share it with your EF. You can also print it out to complete it and/or answer the questions on a separate paper, and turn that in to your EF.

What's important in a college/career training program

QW: What's important to you in life?  What factors are important to your future?

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a college: majors offered, of course, but also location, campus climate, activities, cost, and many others.

Read the Blog Post "Finding Balance in Your College Choices" from the Counselor's Corner Blog.  Then reflect on what is important to you in your college or career training experience.  Think about the following factors:

• location
• climate
• community - who you will be interacting with
• size - large campus or small community
• academic or professional support services available
• cost
• cultural or entertainment options
• distance from home
• etc.

Next, fill out this college inventory.  After you have completed the inventory, revisit the four colleges you chose in last week's assignment.  Do you feel they fit your needs (both academic and non-academic)? Identify at least 2 colleges or training programs that you feel are a good fit (these may or may not be the same programs you chose last week).  Spend at least 15 minutes on the website of each college or training program, and write 1-2 paragraphs for each in the ways they do and do not fit the preferences you identified last week and in the college inventory.

Turn the inventory and the reflection in to your EF.

College Research

QW: When you imagine your experience at college, what do you picture?  Write a description of a day in your life in college.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a college to attend.  With over 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, how do you even begin to search?

Some things to consider, obviously, are the majors offered at the school and the quality of the professors.  You can also get a sense of the quality of the school through details like graduation rate, and what percentage of students return for a second year. In addition to the academic considerations, you should also consider the living environment.  After all, you are probably going to spend at least 4 years of your life here, and you're more likely to be successful academically if you are not miserable in your personal life.

Two large pieces of the college search puzzle are match and fit.  Match refers to academics - how does your academic ability match up to what is expected at the college, and how likely are you to be admitted?  This depends largely on grades and test scores.  College fit refers to just about everything else - does the environment suit you?  Is there a good social environment?  Do the academic support services offered meet your needs? What kinds of clubs, entertainment, and athletic opportunities are there? Will you be able to make friends and develop a support network? Does the college offer the major you are interested in?  If you're not 100% positive of your major, are there other interesting major choices if you change your mind?

For this activity, set up an account on raise.me, and print this worksheet.

Watch the slideshow on College Discovery here.  )There's a small white arrow on the right to click through the slides.) After watching the slideshow and researching colleges on raise.me, complete the worksheet.

While you're at it, enter some information into your profile at raise.me (good grades, any advanced classes you've taken, if you've taken the PSAT or SAT, extracurricular activities, etc) and see if you qualify for any microscholarships offered by the raise.me partner schools.  Microscholarships are awards you can get for extracurricular activities, community service, good grades, etc.  They are awarded by different college partners, and if you end up enrolling in one of the colleges where you have earned microscholarships, the money will be added to your financial aid when you enroll.

Turn in the worksheet to your EF.

Goals

QW: What is something you want to accomplish in 2018? Write down at least one goal you have for this year.

The new year is often about goals - New Year's Resolutions, a new start, changing old habits. However, statistics suggest that less than 10% of people are actually successful in completing their resolutions.

Why do people fail to stick to their New Year's Resolutions?  There are many reasons, including:

• It's hard to break old habits
• The goal is too vague; it's hard to really pin down what you need to do to achieve the goal
• After the initial excitement, you aren't willing to put in the effort needed to reach the goal
• It's not that important; you don't have the personal motivation to reach the goal
• There is a lack of support, you don't have the resources or emotional/social support
• You feel you can always get to it later, and right now you have other things to do

All of these reasons come back around to the same thing; either the goal was not the right goal for you, or it was poorly defined.  Many efficiency experts recommend using a strategy to set clear, meaningful goals.  These are known as SMART goals.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Read the following article on SMART goals: SMART Goals - How to Make Your Goals Achievable

Now look at the goal you identified in the quick write.  Go through the steps in the article:

1. Specific - answer the questions:
• What, specifically, do I want to accomplish? (e.g. rather than "eat better", "eat 5 servings of vegetables per day" or "limit sugar to less than 15 grams per day"
• Why is this goal important?
• Who is involved?
2. Measurable: How will you know when the goal is accomplished?
3. Achievable: What skills or resources do you need to achieve this goal? How will you develop the skills or find the resources? Who can help you with this?
4. Relevant: Understand clearly why this goal is important to you.  Sometimes people are swayed by what other people think they should accomplish, and the goals are not personally meaningful enough to put in the effort required to achieve the goal.  Make sure this is YOUR goal, not something someone else thinks you should do.
5. Time-Bound: Set yourself a deadline!  If your goal is to save $500, when do you want to accomplish this?  Next week? Next month? Next year?  Or maybe your goal is to run a marathon within the next year.  Be specific.  Accountability can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it keeps you on track.

Once you have reviewed all of these, re-write your goal as a SMART goal.  Underneath your goal, address each of the 5 points above.

Example of a SMART goal: "I will run a half-marathon this summer"

• Specific - yes, I'm going to run a half-marathon
• Measurable - yes, either I've done it or I haven't
• Achievable - yes, but I'm going to have to get a training plan and stick to it.  A training partner would probably help keep me accountable.  Also, if I register for an event and pay the race fee, that will help keep me committed to achieving the goal
• Relevant - yes, I really want to get back into running and improve my physical condition.  This will really help with that.  
• Time-Bound - yes, it will happen this summer

Turn in your SMART Goal to your EF.