Hear from others.
Share your success stories here and inspire educators across the state as they work with their own students to make college goals a reality. Maybe you had an idea that caught on and helped students at your school. Maybe one of your students overcame especially difficult challenges to achieve their goal of going to college. This is the place to share your experience with colleagues all over South Carolina.
"Counseling students about post-secondary options is all about equity and access for everyone, paying particular attention to underrepresented groups. It is my goal to assist students and parents in removing both emotional and tangible barriers for students who feel they cannot gain access to higher education. First, I emphasize the equality in all post-secondary paths by validating students' choices — whether a student enters a two- or four-year college directly upon graduation from high school, or utilizes a military path. Additionally, I strongly believe that counseling is a partnership among students, educators and parents; therefore, a huge part of what I do is to connect with all of these groups to ensure that students have the best foundation to enter life beyond high school. I work diligently to distribute information to students and to parents via monthly senior bulletins that are handed to each senior and posted on my personal website, making them available to parents and to the community. I also coordinate events for parents and students: Senior Parent Night, Ed Op (College Day) and a financial aid night with representatives from two- and four-year colleges, as well as guests from SC Student Loan Corporation and the military. An integral responsibility of my job is coordination with college programs, so I coordinate workshops during the year to counsel students regarding SAT/ACT entrance exams. After surveying the faculty this year, I became aware of the need to develop a resource packet containing information to assist teachers in writing effective college admission/scholarship letters. I hope this new tool has helped some of our students gain admission and scholarships to the college of their choice. My belief is that all students from the most academically challenged to the most academically gifted need access to opportunities beyond high school. My challenge is to be the catalyst to ensure those aspirations to higher education come to fruition for all my students."
Greg Bearden
Heart Award-winning Counselor
Walhalla High School
"Providing career education through guidance can be a challenge in middle school. Most school counselors no longer have the opportunity to provide regular classroom guidance because of scheduling conflicts and various other factors. One way that I overcame this obstacle was creating Career Fridays, where I reach the entire school with career education activities which promote skills that will be beneficial in the world of work. The activities are now a part of the regularly scheduled Wildcat Time at Waccamaw Middle School. Wildcat Time started out as an advisor/advisee period, which lasted 20 minutes every day — and now it is part of our balanced literacy objective and lasts 30 minutes. The activities I provide are scripted and follow the guidelines established for Wildcat Time. I have even implemented the ‘Dr. Shivers’ Book of the Month’. I believe this is a best practice because it enables career education to reach all students and provides guidance to teachers in implementing career education activitieum.”
Ayanna L. Shivers, PhD
Heart Award-winning Counselor
Waccamaw Middle School
