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Printer-Friendly ModeDifferent schools, different skills
March 31, 2008 —
While high schools prepare their students for college through education program and course assignments, many students agree that additional preparation would help.
Criminal justice freshman Jordan Velandi said his high school provided several ways for his SVSU education to run smoothly.
"We made college portfolios in our senior seminar class to prepare us for the college we would attend," he said.
These portfolios included letters of recommendation, individual accomplishments achieved by the student, and certifications in certain areas of interest that would help students in the future.
"In the seminar class we also were assigned a hands-on project in our field of interest," Valendia said. "Since I'm going into criminal justice, I videotaped a ride-along with a policeman and presented it to the class. It was a good experience." He also put together a resume in the seminar class to bring with him to college.
Pertaining to certain classes, Velandia said that he was best prepared for the science courses at SVSU. He said chemistry, advanced biology, and forensics classes offered in high school helped him to be well prepared for his basic biology and human biology courses.
Special education freshman Maggie Sullivan had a similar experience at her high school.
In her freshman year of high school, the school prepared students by giving them the opportunity to start an academic portfolio.
"The portfolios we made included resumes, letters of recommendation, various papers we may have written, and even artwork," Sullivan said.
An event was held that helped students with social interaction techniques between one another.
The event was held by school counselors, and included helping with remodeling of older homes in the Saginaw city area. Sullivan said that this event helped bring students together and helped them with social interaction skills needed for college.
Regarding college-level writing, Sullivan said the teachers were good, but she didn't feel prepared for college level writing.
"I wasn't prepared for the study habits needed in college either," she said.
Sullivan felt that she was well prepared for college math, taking geometry early in her high school career as a freshman.
Freshman Ally Johnson felt that she was well prepared in some aspects, but not so well in others.
The teachers at her high school cared about their students and whether they succeeded or not.
"Teachers would stay after school or stay after class for one on one help with problems," Johnson said.
She said that students didn't make portfolios, nor did her curriculum offer senior seminar, and she now thinks that would have been helpful.
She also wishes she would have learned better test-taking skills.
"I'm not very good at taking tests, and I wish I would have learned better techniques to do well on tests." She also said she would have learned how to read faster, and while reading faster, comprehend more, which could have been learned in an English course in high school.
Regarding writing papers, Johnson said it would have helped to write an assortment of different papers. "We just wrote research papers in high school. It would have been helpful if we could have written argumentative papers and even persuasive papers as well."