College and Career: The Future is in Your Hands

By: Crystal Best

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High school is all about preparing you for the future. But for the average student, this is difficult. This is what College and Career is for. All the college counselors help the students, sophomores and up, with their future whether that is college visits, applying for college, work, or more. They send emails almost every week or day giving an update on what colleges or workshops come to Jenks High School all the time.

The person who sends these emails weekly is Paula Dennis, one of the college and career counselors for last names A-K. 

“I hate the emails because people don’t read them. When I send out an email it goes to 5,000 people. My email box this is the first time it’s been over 1,000, it’s so bad. That is the most difficult part of my job, is getting the information to you,” said Dennis.

Dennis explained that’s why the College and Career started a social media account since students would be more likely to see it there than they would ever to check out their emails. However she said that with students not checking their emails, they are missing vital information.

“I’ve seen students miss scholarships, miss admissions. One time I’ve had a student miss a teacher rec, so they weren’t admitted early. I called their rep and said the teacher didn’t have it in on time. She said it doesn’t matter we’ve sent them so many emails telling them. So the colleges know if you read their emails or not,” said Dennis.

Though it’s a hassle and it’s much easier to ignore emails than read them. For students, seniors especially, it’s very important to check them out. Especially if you are applying for colleges. Colleges constantly email you with important information about what you might need to fill out, things for the future, and offer scholarships.

An important date coming up in the College and Career office is November 1st, the early application deadline. Early applications are where a student applies for the college before the normal standard time in the spring, it can sometimes guarantee you a better chance into the college and or give you better options on things like room and board or scholarship offerings.

For many colleges, like OU or Arkansas, early applications are the best option to get accepted into the school. However, with this date, students have to request the transcript by a certain time. If they don’t request it in time, then it won’t be ready for the deadline like most colleges want it to be.

“If anything, if everyone would just stop in and say “can you make sure my transcripts are right?” I would sleep better,” said Dennis.

Though being a College Counselor can be a lot, one thing that seems evident is Dennis's love for her job.

“I have the very best job of anyone in this school. I get to know [students] well. I get to go along your journey with you. I have the best job,” said Dennis.

Another part of College and Career is the Career part. This year Jenks High School got a new Career Counselor Torry Nunnelee. Though she is new to the position, she is not new to the school at all.

“This is my 24th year here in Jenks High School. I was in the classroom teaching AP Chemistry until this year,” said Nunnelee.

To Nunnelee this wasn’t just a spur of the moment, but an opportunity to try something new but still deals somewhat with what she enjoys as a pastime which is working with seniors.

“For me, it was an opportunity to still be able to work with the kids in a different capacity. Instead of being in the classroom being able to help them with chemistry, I’m now able to help them figure out what is in their future after graduation whether that is college or technical school or heading straight into a career,” said Nunnelee.

With this being a new thing for her, she still finds this new counseling job more fun than when she was teaching. Being a career counselor Nunnelee covers over PrepU, where all of the senior class visits OSU to know about college life and potential majors they can pursue, and Internships, where seniors go and intern at jobs in fields of their interest that gives hands-on experience and could lead to potential careers.

Nunnelee with the new job has heard some interesting careers that have even caught her interest in wanting to know more about them.

“I have been very interested in a lot of are technical programs that are offered through tech or OSU IT. [Especially] in the profession, what they call a lineman where they work with the electric companies to restore power and just learning about how they are able to help even now with the hurricane relief efforts. The amount of jobs that are need in that area has been very interesting to me,” said Nunnelee

Along with this are interesting internship placements she’s done. Like a group of students helping out the conductor of the middle school band since so many are joining it and helping teach them. Another interesting one is St. Francis having a group of students go through rotations of different possible jobs at the hospital and seeing things first hand.

Nunnelee also believes that through the years that Jenks has changed, but for the betterment of the students and the opportunities it’s trying to give.

“It has grown quite a bit. I think that everything we have done has grown in the direction to better the education and opportunities available to all of our students and I've been excited each time we’ve made changes because I feel like it definitely is meant to offer more opportunities towards the students.

But just like Dennis, Nunnelee has a special type of love and bond to her job, especially to Jenks High School.

“I just always feel like Jenks High School is my home. I’m not from here, didn’t graduate from here. I mean both of my kids did graduate from here, so I always feel like that this will be my home in terms of my career for as long as I can envision,” said Nunnelee.

Though their jobs are similar yet different and can be very taxing, it seems that the College and Career counselors have one thing in common and that’s a deep passion and love for the students along with the school.

The future. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? College? Work? Or is it nothing? This is every high schooler's brain. They are one of the three, though this is simplifying it. 

We’re told by almost every teacher “this is to prepare you for the future.” But if you don’t know what your future is or what you want, this can seem daunting or even stressful. 

That’s what the College counselors are for, to help you for the future, for the after that we wish would not come any sooner than it needs to. They are better than the ones in the past that basically pipelined you into college even if it wasn’t the best choice for you. 

They recognize something that many counselors struggle with or maybe even the person themself. The fact that college is not for everyone. 

That possibly a technical school or a working degree or just going straight into the workforce is the best fit for you. That you don’t have to go to college if you don’t want to. If you really want to go, but don’t know what to do then go to TCC for the first two years and try your best to figure it out and that’s okay if you switch your major while in college because half do anyways.

It’s to say that though the future can be daunting, it can also be just as exciting. We don’t have to always look into the future, but we don’t always have to stay in the present. That’s it’s okay if you think of “nothing” when you look into the future because you never know what will happen. That is the terrifying beauty of life. Live for the present and the future whatever that may be for you.

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