Counselors Partnering With English Teachers

One of the many valuable sessions at the Annual Conference

By Danielle Nightingale
Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago

I am not new to IACAC nor the work of college admission counseling, but this year I was on the other side of the desk! I left the college side and went to the high school side as a college counselor. All of the sessions I attended were beneficial to my growth as a college counselor, but the session that I have already began to implement for next school year is incorporating college essay writing into our English courses.

The actual session title was Integrating College Essay Instruction into Senior English Classes. This session was so phenomenal and beneficial to me. The session presented the partnership between the counselors and English teachers at Vernon Hills High School. I immediately brought back this success to our English department chair.

We are planning for the 2015-2016 school year to implement college essay writing in all of our English classes. Each grade level will focus on one prompt from Common Application or Gates Millennium Scholarship. This will be unit one of each of the English classes. I am excited to see what the results of the partnership at my institution.

Thank you all for providing me with the opportunity to attend conference! I look forward to another year of success.