Scott Swanson
At this time of the year, Kristin Adams typically sits in her Career Center office at Sweet Home High School, in front of a proverbial revolving door.
‘She counsels, cajoles, challenges high school seniors who are applying for scholarships, considering military service, choosing a college or otherwise making decisions about what they’re going to do after graduation. Some she’s simply shepherding to a diploma.
This spring it’s a whole new ballgame. Teens aren’t stopping in for help because they can’t, and her main connections with her remote charges are digital.
“It is much more difficult, this time around,” Adams said last week. “A lot of seniors have been given the green light that they’re done. They’re not focused on scholarships.”
Senior counselor Julia Weist “worked really hard during the school year,” making sure students were set up for FAFSA grants and financial aid, particularly those who are planning to attend Linn-Benton Community College. When the coronavirus shutdown hit, a lot of those students were off to a good start.
But Adams said she and colleagues typically meet with students to go over their financial aid award and other remaining steps. That’s where COVID-19 has taken its toll.
“It’s been horrific, helping kids with that,” she said. “Usually, I can bring them in and we can go over it on the computer and go over it, step by step, get the documents together. There would be an ‘aha’ moment, when they figured it out.”
She said many students are visual learners, not “print-driven.”
Now, Adams said, she finds herself trying to coach students through complicated paperwork via email or the phone.
“They get confused.”
She said she’s particularly concerned about the “large percentage” of students who plan to go to Linn-Benton Community College in the fall.
“I’m a little worried about kids going to L-B. There’s a lot of paperwork L-B requires to be filled out, signed. I’m just worried whether kids are doing that.”
LBCC does offer help, she said, including a website chat feature through which students can get questions answered.
“I was just e-mailing a student who has a bunch of questions, and I said, ‘You know, if you go to that chat site, they can answer your questions.'”
Financial aid paperwork in Oregon has to be completed by June 1, if students want it this fall, she said.
Adams said another challenge is helping students meet scholarship deadlines. The push to apply for local scholarships offered by Sweet Home Alumni Foundation and others, would have been heating up in mid-March, right about when the school closed to student traffic.
Last year’s graduates received a total of $2,172,378 in scholarship money, according to the school.
This year, instead of face-to-face meetings with seniors, Adams has had to resort to “a lot of e-mailing and texting. I’ve made some videos, YouTube.”
Some students “are on top of it,” she said, but it’s been harder to connect with others. She’s sent notes via the school’s Remind.com app, which is used for emailed announcements, made phone calls, tried to connect via social media.
“We’re working feverishly to get in touch with them,” she said, adding that “once I get in touch with them, they’re always very respectful, attentive. They’re not clueless, but they don’t have announcements being read to them. So many of them have picked up jobs.”
Parents may not be involved, or just don’t know how to help, she added.
Some scholarship grantors have been trying to help by adjusting their deadlines. SHAF extended its scholarship application deadline to Friday, May 8. The Rotary Club’s is May 10.
Adams said students and parents need to pay attention to their Remind accounts and their student email accounts for information and reminders from the Career Center.
“It’s going to be an interesting year,” she said. “That’s for sure.”