Senior workshop was created by the counselors back in 2021, before senior workshop was created October was designated as college planning month. Counselors would take one period of English IV, go into classes and do one lesson on what to do after graduation. Weather it was applying to collages, how to find a job, connecting with someone in the apprenticeship, or skill trades colleges.
“I felt like in that one class period, we could never accomplish as much as we wanted. So, we were just trying to figure out how can we make this affective throughout the year, because then we have students, large caseloads of students, that would be like ‘I want to meet with you about a scholarship.’ We just felt like we couldn’t just meet one on one with everyone, it just wasn’t sustainable because we have ninth through eleventh grades who also need things, too. So that’s sort of why the format changed to where we are all available at the same time,” counselor Lauren Brandt-Erickson said.
East has numerous college representatives that attend senior workshop every year. Each college that attends gets their own table where students are able to have the opportunity to sit down one on one to talk about their major, the application process, financial aid or with questions students may have about their future plans.
Cosmetology school, Iowa School of Beauty, Aveda, military recruiters, apprenticeship and trade, real estate have all attended senior workshop in the past. Vermer has also attend that hire direct. Along with Drake, DMACC, Simpson and Grandview University who are all returning representatives that attend senior workshop. Overall, there are a variety of schools or opportunities that seniors should further look into, so attending would open the door to exploring/getting a better idea of what to do after high school.
Senior workshop days will be every Wednesday during first and eighth period throughout the months of October through April, where this takes place on the upper level of the library. Students are not required to sign up ahead of time, students can just show up, as they will take attendance there, so you are not counted absent.
“We do prefer that student come during a release time if they have it and If they don’t have it first or eight then we just want to make sure there’re passing their class and their teacher has a understanding that they are good to go to senior workshop,” Brandt-Erickson said.
It is often asked how does senior workshop benefits seniors or why should seniors attend?
“It keeps seniors on pace basically with their plan, so seniors who attend are more likely to meet their college application deadline, so that is good because then they are going to qualify for more financial aid, they’re going to have better housing if they want to live on campus, and that they are going to get that first announcement on the scholarships that are being promoted, a chance to ask questions on filling those out to make sure they are thero and done well so if they want that edited, looked over or feedback we are happy to do that. And then I think it is just dedicated time, and I think seniors have so much to do, so to know that every week on Wednesday they have that time to work on things,” Brandt-Erickson said.
Senior Workshop was created for counselor’s to better serve seniors with all the different senior planning tasks that need to get done.