Resources for college and career paths
My husband and stepdaughter are from Brazil. She is currently a freshman in high school. She definitely wants to go to college and she’s expressed interest in a few different careers. My husband is not familiar with how the path to college works here and frankly my knowledge of it is severely lacking. I want to help her with finding resources for exploring different professions and resources for support with becoming college-bound. She attends high school in the north bay. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can find these types of resources or programs?
Jan 12, 2024
Parent Replies
High school counselors are the gateway for this information. I would start by looking in detail at her high school's website, which may have some info posted about the UC system's A-G requirements as a starting point, then look at her schedule and compare it to the desired track. (It is not expected that everyone would go to UC, just that is the standard for the above and beyond graduation requirements.) If it's all Greek to you three, email the counselor and ask for an appointment for the three of you. It is good to get on the counselor's radar anyway so they can be aware of your stepdaughter's special concerns/needs as an immigrant student.
I have a freshman in high school as well. I keep hearing college admissions have changed since I applied to college (30+ years ago), so I'm starting to find out more details about what that really means. The colleges that were shoo-ins back in the day are now reach schools. In my research, I stumbled across this podcasts: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/episodes/. I have no affiliation. I started listening to the podcasts and it's been very informative.
She should start with her high school’s college and career center. That is an excellent resource.
If her high school has an AVID program she might want to look into taking that as an elective - the program is designed for students who need help with the college process - especially immigrant and first generation in Is college students. I teach in their program (in the north bay too). It’s a wonderful and students get a ton of college and career support.
Career One Stop is free and has a well-organized collection of videos on very specific careers in all different areas. See ohttps://www.careeronestop.org/Videos/CareerVideos/career-videos.aspx
If you want to spend the money (it's not cheap) you can also hire a career counselor for your teen. On My Way Consulting offers career counseling for teens as a distinct service from its college admission counseling. I hired them for this service for my teen, who is a high school junior, this past fall. The counselor taught my kid really useful skills for continuing to research careers even beyond the ones she suggested for my kid. It was very helpful, though maybe more so for a junior than it might be for a freshman. The free videos are probably enough for now. High school should still mostly be a time of open exploration.
Thanks, a counselor is a good starting point. I’m looking into Girls Who Code, other STEM programs, UC’s pre college scholar program, etc. I was hoping there were sources of consolidated information where one could find info for a number of different programs.