High School Counselor Week

Educators say they lack resources to address worsening mental health crisis
K-12 Dive – February 16, 2023
Both teachers and superintendents say student mental health and behavioral concerns are more urgent now than before the pandemic, but schools are lacking resources to properly address the issues, according to two surveys released Thursday. In a separate survey of 1,109 teachers, administrators and student support staff, 84% said students are developmentally behind in self-regulation and relationship building compared to pre-pandemic levels and that incidents of physical violence have more than doubled since COVID-19. But almost 60% said pressure to boost academic outcomes leaves them with little time to address the situation.

The other long Covid
Vox – February 21, 2023
The pandemic took young people’s present. What will it do to their future?

Athletic recruitment timeline – for Sophomores and Juniors
Post – February 22, 2023
College Advice & Timely Tips with Lee Bierer

10 things to know about how social media affects teens’ brains
NPR – February 16, 2023
The statistics are sobering. Nearly 1 in 3 teen girls report having seriously considered suicide in the past year. One in 5 teens identifying as LGBTQ+ say they attempted suicide in that time. Between 2009 and 2019, depression rates doubled for all teens. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The question is: Why now? ‘Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia. … Within the last 20 years, the advent of portable technology and social media platforms [has been] changing what took 60,000 years to evolve,’ Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer at the American Psychological Association (APA), told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. ‘We are just beginning to understand how this may impact youth development.’ Prinstein’s 22-page testimony, along with dozens of useful footnotes, offers some much-needed clarity about the role social media may play in contributing to this teen mental health crisis. For you busy parents, caregivers and educators out there, we’ve distilled it down to 10 useful takeaways:

Thanks, NFL, but I am not a ‘dream crusher.’ I am a professional school counselor.
Yahoo! Sports – February 15, 2023
I am so glad to learn about your program Player Care, which provides ‘medical, emotional, financial, social and community’ assistance to players. After watching their video on player adversity during the Super Bowl, it was also surprising to learn of this program. I’m a school counselor. Not a guidance counselor, like they called us in the video. We aren’t just guiding students toward college acceptance letters. We are teaching and reinforcing social-emotional and executive functioning skills and assisting students with reaching their full potential, regardless of barriers. Our job is loving and accepting students and helping them grow into their best versions. It is about assisting students to overcome adversity, the very skill the NFL highlighted in the video. I understand the video was trying to promote and reflect on the challenges the Chiefs and Eagles teams had to overcome to make it to the Super Bowl. It’s no small feat. But it bothered me that they took down school counselors in the quest to promote a desired image and combat the negative images the NFL has had. The work I am doing and my fellow school counselors is essential. Player Care had an opportunity to hold us up with them. Still, instead, they unintentionally insulted and demeaned school counselors’ role and importance everywhere during a week when we worked so hard to advocate for ourselves.

Why hard feelings are good for teens
CNN – February 20, 2023
For all the talk of helicopter parents and their snowflake children, most parents I know are more concerned with whether their child’s development would be considered normal by experts than whether they are raising a prodigy. When the teen years arrive, the ‘Is it normal?’ instinct can go into overdrive. Adolescence is marked by many changes, including ones that manifest physically and, their more challenging counterpart, ones that manifest emotionally. But difficult feelings are often not a cause for concern. We spoke to psychologist Lisa Damour about why we’ve become less tolerant of big feelings, how to handle them when they arise, and the ways parents can, and can’t, help.

Adults Are Letting Teen Girls Down
The Atlantic – February 21, 2023
Readers weigh in on the causes, and potential solutions, for teen girls’ worsening mental health.

6 in 10 College Students Lied On Their Applications
Intelligent.com – January 30, 2023
As the news about George Santos and the varsity blues admissions scandal continues to circulate, we wanted to find out how common it is to lie on your college application. Given the sheer volume of applications that most schools receive, the veracity of information is largely left up to the honor system. In January, Intelligent.com surveyed over 1,600 current 4-year college students along with those who have graduated from a 4-year school within the last five years. The results:

College application essays: How to stop the lies
University Business – February 15, 2023
The best solution is to design an application process that reduces a student’s ability to cheat or lie rather than just hoping they won’t, and the most actionable step is fixing the essay.

From a Teen’s Perspective: Dealing with college admission stress
InMenlo (CA) – February 20, 2023
While I recognize the importance of higher education, I think that too many of us compromise our mental health by spending countless hours worrying about college. It’s important to enforce practices in your daily life that help you decompress. Not only will you be a happier and healthier person, but you will perform better in all areas of your life. You can’t crush that AP Lit test if you’re only thinking about college! So, here are some of the ways I find most effective to de-stress:

Avoid These 7 Mistakes When Applying for Scholarships
U.S. News & World Report – February 21, 2023
A student doesn’t necessarily need to meet certain income requirements, have the perfect GPA or be an athlete to earn scholarship money. Funds can be awarded for a variety of reasons, including a student’s background, hobby, state or city residency, musical talent, major or academic interest. But with hundreds of college scholarships available online, the search and application process can be overwhelming and mistakes can happen. Here are seven mistakes to avoid when searching for and filling out scholarship applications.

What do elite colleges do with all that endowment money?
Marketplace – February 17, 2023
With last year’s announcement of student loan forgiveness by the White House, I was wondering; what do private schools do with their huge endowments? Does this announcement subsidize tuition for students who went to private schools that already have massive endowments? If not, what do those schools do with that money?

How to Perform Well on SAT, ACT Test Day
U.S. News & World Report – February 16, 2023
Stress is not necessarily a new feeling for high school students, but taking a standardized test like the ACT or SAT can bring its own set of challenges. Preparation and perspective can go a long way, and implementing these six tips can help students feel comfortable and perform well on test day.