Counselor Edition: Tom Guided These Students Using Podcast Stories To Build College Lists.
Tom Stepkoski & 3 Students of Westhill High School share their workshop learnings
In the Spring of 2023, Tom Stepkoski, College Counselor at Westhill High School conducted a special workshop for rising seniors using select episodes from this Podcast to Build College Lists.
As you know, the “College Matters. Alma Matters.” Podcast chronicles personal college stories which includes college alumni and students.
On my Podcast, I talked to Tom and 3 (then rising senior) students from the workshop - Melissa, Anne and Chelsea, about their experiences.
Here below is an edited and excerpted version of the Podcast conversation:
Q1: Why did you conduct this workshop using Podcast Stories?
Tom: I think if you look at College Counselors across America, I think, we're all basically doing the same thing:
You know, we offer workshops, in FAFSA, we offer workshops in essay writing, we offer workshops, or, you know, on every part of college,
But we weren't offering enough of the true pain point, which for us, was sitting with students, and really, really going through their lists of colleges that they were applying to!
We were just sitting back and letting them make all the decisions, which they should,
Sometimes, when we gave them input, it wasn't really sticking!
But when I spoke to you and learned about your Podcast, “College Matters.Alma Matters.”, I noticed that your guests included college students and alumni, talking about the college process.
At the end of the day, the people that they're [students] really listening to, and the opinion that they really value, are students themselves, kids their own age, or a little bit older than them.
Q2: How did you structure the workshop?
Tom: Once you sent me a good list of students and alumni podcast stories, I listened to each one.
I decided, I'm going to do a workshop, where I'm going to have my students listen to parts of these podcasts, or all of the podcasts.
And I decided to make it like a 4-day workshop - four different times for a one hour period during the school day.
Day One was just brainstorming, about how to make a college list
I played snippets of those four students from your podcast, just so that the students can kind of hear what was important to Sydney, to Lorena who wanted to focus on environmental studies, but still minor in entrepreneurship, and so on;
At the end of that session, I asked them to listen to the entire podcast.
Day Two, and they sort of talked a little bit more about what they heard in the podcast.
I was actually pleased that they had heard and grasped the entire podcast.
Day Three, we started start to craft college lists.
We wrote down a school that we know,
We're definitely going to be applying to, and
Why are we applying to that.
And finally, on Day Four, the task was for them to actually come up with a list and divide them up into their reaches, their targets, and their safeties,
Which they could leave on day four and feel very comfortable to do some research on these schools over the summer time,
And be ready to see their counselor in Fall.
So, what did the students from the workshop think of the experience?
Here are some thoughts from Melissa, Chelsea and Anne.
Q3: Before you went into this workshop, did you have a list of colleges?
Melissa: When I first went to this workshop, I had two local colleges in mind - UConn and Sacred Heart.
And so when I went to these classes, listened to the College Matters podcasts, and I heard the stories,
I noticed that there are opportunities out there to go to other states,
And it really helped me weigh where I would be better in a college.
Anne: I wasn't really sure about, Safety, Reaches and Targets.
My list was, I would say, very unorganized.
But during the podcast, it was very insightful to learn like, what these actually are and how it'll help you when choosing the right school.
Q4: How did these stories help you get a better feel and understanding for what college is?
Chelsea: Well, there are two stories I felt really resonated with me. One was Lorena’s, with the Major and, Aaron with the size of his school.
Lorena talked about how she really liked Davidson College because they had a really great and Environmental Studies program. And that really resonated with me because the Major I want to go into, there's not that many schools that have it, & it's mainly a minor in most schools.
So it really made me look into these schools once I did start creating a list. I hadn’t been checking the Majors, so I had a bunch of schools on my list that didn't offer what I wanted.
And then for Aaron the size of the school hearing him talk about how his school is so big that he had to do a lot of stuff outside of the classroom to get to know his professors.
It made me realize that I don't want to go to a big school, while before I thought college size wasn't important to me at all.
But after hearing Aaron’s story, it made me realize that size is important, because I want to know my teacher just from being in their class.
And yes, if they're doing stuff outside of the room that I'm interested in, I will pursue that. But I'm obligated to have to do that just to get to know them!
Q5: How did you like the in-class discussions you had amongst yourselves?
Chelsea: I really liked the discussions we had in regards to like money, specifically scholarships.
Before we had these workshops, in my mind, it was a financial loan like FAFSA.
But then I don't remember who brought it up in the program, but they started talking about scholarships and how to fill them out,
I learned that you can get a lot more, and a lot more help from scholarships, as well.
And I feel like that could kind of be neglected in the whole process, & it's not talked about enough.
But I felt that the session, brought that to light!
Bonus Q: Would you recommend this workshop to other students?
Melissa: So yes, I would most definitely, because these are things that typically aren't taught by parents or teachers in general.
And it was great to have a specific class on colleges,
Which helped clear the confusion and
Got us to organize our thoughts.
And so when I walked out of there, I feel like I had something concrete - what I should do, what should I do next? And where to go if I needed help?
Chelsea: The list I created in the workshop is the same list that I'm using right now, those are the same schools that I'm applying to!
I hope you found this workshop discussion useful. If you want to learn more about Using Podcast Stories, reach out to me at podcast@almamatters.io.
Good Luck!
What do think of this workshop to Build College Lists using my Podcast Stories?
Thank You to All for supporting my Podcast and this Newsletter, and to all My Guests who have been generous with their time and counsel on my podcasts.
Have a Wonderful February!
Venkat