Students assisting counselors through Americorp roles

This school year, several senior students have connected with Americorps in order to help their peers with postsecondary planning. Owen Brinker, Kaylee McSweeney and Mya Miller are Americorps Student Leaders, assisting other students with their future education. 

“The main goal for us is to reduce workload for the counselors. We want them to be able to focus on the emotional stuff that we’re not trained on,” McSweeney said. “We mostly do college planning, but we define ‘college’ as any kind of education after high school. It’s not necessarily just university.” 

“We do a lot,” Miller said. “College in general—having questions, where to go, how to pick a college, how to apply—sometimes we don’t always know the answer, but we’re more than willing to research.” 

“It kinda differs by week,” Brinker said. “We all have our own rules.” 

The student leaders acknowledged that the diversity of the student experience can make their jobs difficult, as there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to what to do after high school. 

“Students [have] different environments at their house. If they’re undocumented or only have one parent, we’re answering those questions,” Brinker noted. “I think we’re getting better at that because we’ve finally had more training.” 

As for those who plan on pursuing a less-traditional postsecondary pathway, the student leaders said they are equipped to aid there as well. In fact, they recently helped organize a trade fair for students interested in those lines of work.

“We are there to help if you’re doing trade school or an apprenticeship,” McSweeney said. 

As to their favorite parts of the job, the student leaders all emphasized how enjoyable helping people can be. 

“We would hang out during the [college application week] presentations and help answer questions. I really liked getting to talk to everyone, hearing what everyone’s doing with their futures. It’s kind of cool to get to know everything and help,” McSweeney said. 

Brinker echoed that sentiment. “Being able to answer questions—you have all these students that are freaking out, like, ‘once I finish high school, I’m an actual adult. How do I do this?’ relieving stress but still being a student at the same time I think is pretty cool.”

For those needing postsecondary help, the Americorps Student Leaders are available in the counseling office fourth and sixth period, as well as during Tiger Time.