During the week of October 21–24, Seniors at Skyline High School were called down to the Career Center to work on college, scholarship, and job applications. Utah College Application Week (UCAW) is held at all high schools across the state to help students wrap up or start their applications for things such as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and colleges/universities.
Skyline’s College Advisor, Josie Burke, said, “UCAW isn’t just for applying to colleges […] You can work on applying to scholarships, or filling out the FAFSA form. Also, if you’re not wanting to go to college, but you still need help […] applying to jobs or working on a resume, that is something we can also help with.”
Burke has been working since September to get everything ready for UCAW. Her tasks include doing things like getting college representatives, food for the morning, and messages out informing Seniors when their scheduled time to come down to the Career Center is.
“We’ve tried to make our Career Center look nice by hanging up some college stuff […] Those are all Utah specific deadlines, information, scholarship, housing, all of that, tuition, all of the basic information,” said Burke.
All of the important information is accessible to students via the Career Center website. Some important deadlines that Burke thinks students should know about are: December 1, the Utah State priority merit scholarship application, University of Utah early application and final merit application, Weber State scholarship priority application, Westminster early action application, and December 15, the BYU scholarship and final application deadline.
Throughout the week students were called down to the Career Center where college reps and counselors helped students and answered any questions they had about the application process. Kiana Reid, a Senior who went to UCAW, said, “I feel like it was a pretty productive time.”
Most schools across the state go into Seniors’ English classes to give presentations and have them work on applications. Instead of doing this, the Skyline Career Center decided to have the students come to them.
Burke stated, “Our students are in a lot of hard classes, so we try to pick times that would work best for the student, rather than [what[ would work best for us.”
Reid also thought it was better that students were pulled out of classes. She said, “A lot of Seniors don’t have a full schedule […] it’s perfect to go in during then.”
During UCAW, the Career Center had many different tools available for students to help them. These include things like college reps, informative slides, counselors, and food in the morning to motivate students to come.
“I’ve contacted some local businesses about getting some food donated, so hopefully we’ll have bagels for some of the days, and then I have some Nothing Bundt Cake coupons as well,” said Burke, prior to UCAW. Things ended up working out to the appreciation of Seniors.
UCAW isn’t the only event that Skyline holds for students to prepare for their future. They also have things like American College Test (ACT) prep and FAFSA night. “I think both of those are just so indicative of how supportive Skyline can be,” said Reid.
