Collegiate Challenge Monthly Conversation Topics
Junior Year
September
 In meeting your candidate – develop your personal dialog to open them up –
establish trust by sharing your life with them
 Discuss what career option they have identified early on
 Birkman Test to be administered and assessment given to compare with their earlier
beliefs
 Discuss with student what type of lifestyle (realistic) they want
 Identify fears that will stop them from achieving their goal
 Identify potential career objective and college major
 Establish extracurricular activities and community service that support career
objective
 Collect data and visit trade association pertaining to that industry
 Emphasize studying the 10 Real SATs Guide for preparation for PSAT in October
 Encourage daily site review of College Board “SAT Question of the Day”
 Discuss with College/Senior Counselor the procedures of acquiring waivers for
ACT/SAT testing
 Assign to student a writing assignment to describe their home life and family
October
 Have student read current events as they pertain to their career choice. It is
important that colleges see their interest and awareness of current events. Make
this an important part of weekly discussions
 Work with students to establish a list of college scholarship for junior and senior
year and create a spread sheet (see attach)
 Start developing a resume format to list activities. This resume will be different
from a work resume
 Identify colleges that excel in student’s career choice or major. This can be done by
the College Board website or The College Board Book of Majors, Princeton Review
website, and US News and World Report
 Student should then research colleges and majors to identify unique programs
pertaining to their interests – areas to identify is company’s who recruit from that
program, the success rate of graduate school (if career warrants graduate school),
starting salary, internship opportunities, academic student organizations, etc.
 All students should attend college night and encourage sitting in on college
presentations. Many students miss out on the valuable information representatives
have to give about their colleges
 Spend some time going over the college brochures and material with students. More
times than not, they are never revisited
 Register to take the November, December, and/or January SATs (studies indicate
that these are easier test dates using old test material). In registration, indicate a
copy of the test questions and answer sheet to be sent with test results – this can be
used as a future study guide
 Register and study for the December or February ACT test. All students should take
both to identify which test is more suited for them
 Discuss study time commitment and set goals for test scores – make them
accountable
November
 Continue encouraging studying for both the ACT and SATs
 Continue more career research to expand to the Department of Labor Occupational
Handbook online
 Encourage to read trade magazine that can be found on career specific association’s
website. i.e. – Society of Automotive Engineers has a trade magazine with industry
news
 Develop leadership roles in clubs and activities – consider a food drive and clothing
drive for homeless shelters during the holidays or help distribute blankets to
homeless. This allows development of a strong essay with the experience of giving
 Work on college scholarships in finding out what is needed to be awarded a
scholarship from colleges and organization (ex: GPA requirement, extracurricular
activities, leadership skills, required course that need to be taken)
December
 Encourage community service over holiday break
 Read/watch news – current events
 Get on mailing list to colleges of interest
 Study for SATs and ACTs
 Discuss a reading list option to improve reading skills and vocabulary words –
Reader’s Digest, Time Magazine, USA Today – all which are found in most libraries
 Read at least one career centered book
January
 Start brainstorming about potential college essay topic
 Identify what is the student’s strengths to emphasize on the application – find a
pattern
 Assign writing exercises for the student. Most English classes require essay writing,
ask to review assignment to give them pointers on expression
 Go over sample essays with student to gain perspective
 Start completing the chart of college requirements
January continued:
 Start to make email contact with college representatives to interested schools
 Ask colleges about financial assistance to arrange for college visits for Spring Break
 Identify any testing deficiency of the student – i.e. TAKS, SATs, ACT – suggest
additional tutoring or a study commitment
 Review SATs/ACT test results, test questions, and answer sheet
 Attend college financial aid and scholarship session
February
 Go over college requirement list and identify were scores stand in comparison
 Decide to retake any standardized test – encourage SAT I and ACT testing be
completed by April
 Decide if SAT II Subject Test is needed for admission and plan on taking those in May
or June
 Continue communicating with colleges and follow up on research on careers –
students should now be more familiar with what that career does
 Identify summer programs that allows for internships, shadowing, or volunteering in
that area – programs in business and be done by Junior Achievements, Future
Business Leaders of America, and local universities
 Start identifying organizations students can join that offer scholarships, ie. LULAC,
Urban League, Mayor’s Youth Council, NAACP, Boy Scouts, and Girls Scouts
 Identify career specific scholarships
 Cross reference college list with College Money Guide to identify good financial aid
school – start narrowing down
 Look at current year’s application and identify which area of the student’s profile
that need to be worked on
 Discuss essay topics of current year’s application and brainstorm how they would
answer the questions
March
 On scholarship websites, view essays and profile of past winners – discuss with
students the competitiveness of scholarships
 Discuss current events issues and look for article that they can read on topics you
think are important
 Finalize summer plans – working, summer school, enrichment program, community
service, and reading assignments
 Finalize college visit plans for Spring Break
 Encourage running for school leadership position – club, student government, prom
committee, etc
 Study for SAT IIs and set goals for test scores – they can study for subject exams
while studying for AP exams
April
 Review career and industry they want to work in – make sure they know the
difference; career is what they do and the industry is who they do it for (lawyer for
the retail industry)
 Once they discover career – talk about industry and have student research that
industry; they need to identify who are potential employers for motivation
 Identify what type of lifestyle they want
 Go on (website) that identify a real budget (cost of living); they have to realize how
much one needs to live comfortably
 Have them start collecting pictures from magazines to create a visual board – this
will be a fun break for the end of the year
May
 Review scholarship list and identify with student which scholarships should be done
over the summer
 Make visual board as an exercise – mentor should make one too
 At the end of the semester dinner, they can share their goals if they are
comfortable – use this to kick off a productive summer and goal setting for senior
year