College and Career Preparations with Ms. Darla Ramirez-Lightner

Navigating the journey for college and career preparations is exciting but can also come with lots of questions. Listen as SV's Coordinator of Collegiate & Career Affairs takes a deep dive into the prospects of the upcoming college and career fair and reviews “SchooLinks,” SV’s new college and career readiness platform.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW

• The role of Coordinator of Collegiate and Career Affairs 
• Top questions that parents ask regarding college and career planning
•  Upcoming College and Career Fair
•  Helpful tips/advice that parents/guardians should know, like SchooLinks, SV’s new college and career readiness platform 
• Student and parent resources available on the website - Guidance / OVERVIEW (svsd.net)

SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Darla Ramirez-Lightner, Coordinator of Collegiate & Career Affairs

Ms. Darla Ramirez-Lightner is in her 32nd year at Seneca Valley as a school counselor.  In the Spring of 2019, she transitioned into the Coordinator of Collegiate & Career Affairs for the secondary campus working with the three school counseling offices 7-12. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Education degree with Secondary School Counseling Certification from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Psychology Degree from Grand Canyon University.  Additionally, she holds a College Admissions Counseling Specialist Certificate and Career Development Specialist Certificate. 

As a proud parent of three students who graduated from Seneca Valley, she offers a dual college and career perspective and has served the Seneca Valley community with experience, passion and enthusiasm.

Transcript

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FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

 00:00:02:26 - 00:00:10:13
Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

 00:00:11:12 - 00:00:21:28
Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. Today I'm joined by Darla Ramirez-Lightner, who is Coordinator of Collegiate and Career Affairs at Seneca Valley School District. Thanks for joining us today. 

 00:00:22:00 - 00:00:25:02
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Darla, I'm happy to be here. Jeff, thank you for having me. 

 00:00:25:07 - 00:00:32:13
Jeff Krakoff: So in your role at the district, you know, tell us about what it is you do and how do you help prepare students? 

 00:00:33:10 - 00:02:39:27
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Absolutely. I work closely with 7-12th grade school counselors and deliver the college and career education lessons and programming on the secondary campus. I oversee the Seneca Valley's comprehensive school counseling plan, which is called 339, which is a K-12 plan of developmental career readiness activities mandated by the state of Pennsylvania. I coordinate for students, the college and career school fairs, the jobs and opportunities fairs, different career programs. I coordinate career track field trips and that could be to certain college visits. It could be to workplaces and different companies and other fairs that maybe are held by Butler County, or maybe down in the city of Pittsburgh at David Lawrence Convention Center. Um, I coordinate workplace visits, career mentoring programs. I bring in every year a different group of speaker series topics. I'm always from professionals and I try to make those timely. You know, for students, depending on where in the process they are with their college and career planning. Any evening programs that I would coordinate, I coordinate evening programs on financial aid and, financial aid application. When the students and parents need to fill out their Fafsa, we have completion sessions regarding that in the evening, scholarships. And I'm really excited, Jeff, about our new college and career readiness platform that is new this year. It's called SchooLinks. So, um, a lot of my time this year was just really working with that program, training people, working with students, working with teachers, working with administrators, um, and even working in, with different workplaces about this new college and career readiness platform. So that's just a little bit of what I do throughout the school year. 

 00:02:40:09 - 00:02:57:22
Jeff Krakoff: Well, it's more than a little bit. That's a lot. You're a very busy person. And uh, you mentioned a couple of times career fairs. I know that there's one that's coming up soon, a College and Career Fair, um, taking place on April 17th. Can you tell us what that's all about? 

 00:02:58:07 - 00:06:06:01
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Absolutely. Um, since you know all about students making choices, they're going to make choices of their varied paths. The path that they are interested in, that could be a four-year college path, a two-year college, a career technical or nursing hospital, um, path. It could be a military, apprenticeship or directly into the workforce path. So, you know, working with all these, um, different plans, we want to provide services and resources and just let kids discover who they are and look at all these options. So the one that you just mentioned is the College and Career School Fair. Again, it is mentioned it's April 17th. It's going to be in our senior high school gymnasium from 10 AM - 12 PM during the school day. The focus is going to be on 10th and 11th grade students, approximately 60-70 4-year, two-year career, technical, military representatives will be in attendance. So interested um students can walk through and they could visit the different tables and ask questions, network and exchange contact information with these representatives. We try to prepare the students for this event with talking about, you know, the expectations of walking into a crowded gymnasium with lots of noise and lots of people, talking to other people. We give out handouts about questions they could possibly ask and of course handout some directories. But then in May, on May 9th, we have something called our Job and Opportunities Fair. This is going to be approximately 25-30 different workplaces and companies. And the focus of this fair is going to be on graduating seniors and juniors to come through. And this particular focus would be on seniors that are networking for full time jobs. Also, seniors and juniors can be looking at internships for the summer. They could look at networking for future internships. For instance, if someone goes off to a two-year college or a four-year college, and want to network with a company now in two years, you know, check back in with them about a future internship. We want that to be a networking opportunity. Also, juniors and seniors can talk about career job shadows with these companies and part time jobs for summer work. So we prepare, you know, the students for that by offering them, you know, a resume assistance, um, talking to them about what questions to approach when they, you know, go to the tables. So and we also have the directories for the that fare as well. So it's sort of busy here in the spring because we have these two big fairs and we try to provide opportunities right in our school gymnasium. 

 00:06:06:12 - 00:06:25:04
Jeff Krakoff: So, you know, there's a lot for students to think about. And I'm sure you hear a lot of questions and a lot of things from students and parents and guardians. But if you do pick a top five, you know, what are the top questions that you hear about, um, college and career planning from folks? 

 00:06:25:27 - 00:08:13:09
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Sure. Um, I think, you know, I'll just throw out a parent, uh, question. I get a lot. Um, how can I support my child in their college and career planning? And, um, I know this could be a sensitive question, because I always come back and say. And the perspective that we have is, yes, the student needs to be in the driver's seat. They need to be in the driver's seat, um, of their own college and career planning. But you need to be in the car. You need to be a passenger in the car, and you need to help navigate and maybe, um, guide your son or daughter through, you know, and really just assist with resources, you know, research stage that the number one influence for college and career readiness choices happens to be from the parent. So we know that, um, you know, the parent has a big influence on this. But again, you know, we need the student in the driver's seat. You know, in my perspective. Um, if I answer questions from the parents, I'm likely not to see the student come into my office or go down to the school counselors office if we're going to answer the parent questions. And we are just one resource of many resources. Um, and if the kid is graduating or graduating in the next couple of years, we want to prepare them to advocate for themselves. We need to have the students learn that experience, to be able to ask questions and reach out for help and to talk to people and network. So that's sort of a question that we get, you know, how do I support, you know, my child in this process? Um, and that's sort of an answer that, that, that I've used, you know, throughout, throughout my career. 

 00:08:14:02 - 00:08:52:18
Jeff Krakoff: Um, I love that analogy of, of having a student, a driver's seat. And I guess there's a temptation for parents to be backseat drivers in that scenario, too, right? Yeah. And, you know, a big part of maturing is, you know, like you said, advocating for yourself, being, you know, heavily involved in these own decisions that's awesome. So for parents, guardians, students, um, you mentioned there's a couple of big fairs coming up in April and May. Where can people go to learn more about all the resources available and specific information about these fairs? 

 00:08:53:09 - 00:11:01:13
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Yes. Um, certainly we have our school counseling website that. If a parent or student really didn't visit this website, they really need to do so because my whole, you know, curriculum and planning throughout the year, it's going to be at their fingertips. Um, going to that website and a big question that students ask. And it's, you know, I'm glad you asked this question. And I could tell you where we're located, where you could find that guidance website. But students come in a lot, especially, you know, sometimes beginning of the year, middle of the year, even end of the year and say, I don't know where to start and where do I start planning? I need a guide. And, you know, I always talk to students. And their parents and said we need you need to set some goals. You need to set, you know, every every two weeks, every month. You need to set these little goals to start learning about yourself, taking assessments, um, figuring out really what. Options that you feel are going to fit the goals that you want for yourself. And it starts with again, the students need to get to know themselves. They they also need to understand that they need to ask themselves what they value, what they value in a future career. You know, what is their dream job? But what are those necessities in a career that that a student feels that they need to have to be happy? Um, I always tell students they need to start with a checklist. You know, when we talk about goals and what they should be accomplishing this year. You know, if college, for instance, is college is the plan, then they need to get their hands on a college checklist. I know that we have checklists on our website that students can access that has all the activities. Um, a lot of the activities I mentioned already planned in the dates, so a student can pick that up beginning of the year as a ninth grader, 10th grade or 11th grader or 12th grader and say, okay, this is my goal this year. 

 00:11:01:15 - 00:11:44:06
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: I'm going to attend this event, this event. And it also gives little monthly. Well, you should be planning this right now. Um, you should be attending signing up to attend this fair. So it really is a checklist for Seneca Valley students that is right on our website. So that's that's a question that they ask. But in order to get to our website, you know, I know that they would just go to the senior high school and they could select the guidance tab or simply they could go to www.Svsd.Net/domain/2093. 

 00:11:44:17 - 00:12:06:23
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So again go to the the the web page for the senior high school on the district website. And then go specifically to the guidance page. Um, are there any other helpful tips or advice that you'd like to give parents, guardians, students when it comes to, the resources and preparing for college or a career? 

 00:12:06:28 - 00:14:32:06
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Yes, absolutely. I wanted to mention I already mentioned our new platform. It's a modern platform. We have it here at Seneca and it's for grades 7-12. And additionally for the seniors they actually have for college preparation and applications, and also to request any transcripts. Um, they will use schooLinks for that, um, at their senior time in their senior year. So this schooLinks platform will have different assessments to discover their interests, their strengths. There is exploratory exercises for looking for the right college fit. There are exercises for career searching. You could research very specific things about careers, including job outlook. You could stay in the state of Pennsylvania. If you plan on moving to another state, you could research another state's information. Um, it's all there at their fingertips, and it actually will help you create a personalized graduation plan. You know, that's going to reflect that student's post-secondary goals. So SchooLinks is available. I know that parents are going to be getting information about how to access their parent account for SchooLinks. Students this year, since this program is new - the counselors have been doing lesson plans, and we've been working with our teachers and our staff and our administrators. And we've actually had 6-7 lessons this year already, where the staff works with the students on different activities with SchooLinks. So the parents are going to be onboarded soon to this program. They're going to receive information in April, grades 7-12, to be able to go in and access that SchooLinks accounts. And they themselves, as parents can join in, and they could see a little bit of what the students, were doing in school links and what careers they favorited, what colleges they favored, what plan they favored. Again, whether it's military, directly to work force, going after an apprenticeship or some type of college or career technical school. The students have that information in SchooLinks. So I'm really excited about that and that's going to offer another layer of support. 

 00:14:33:00 - 00:14:47:16
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. Sounds like a wonderful platform, the SchooLinks. Um, is that something that students or parents need to seek out, or is that just going to be brought to them, you know, by somebody that's part of the guidance office at Seneca Valley? 

 00:14:48:00 - 00:16:53:26
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Yes. The students have already been using SchooLinks this entire school year. So they've actually we have, you know, whether it's a seventh and eighth grade buildings where they have their teams that the staff and teachers work with, the kids. They've gone to SchooLinks six times this year and ninth and 10th grade, um, it's a matter of home rooms, students that are in their alphabetical grade, home rooms. Um, teachers and staff worked with those students. And same thing here at the senior high. We actually at the senior high, uh, broke the students down in SV career pathways. So depending on our SV career pathways, that's something else that's new that that's another layer of support. Um, sometimes a lot of students around registration time for the next school year. They say, well, I'm interested in the medical field, but I'm not quite sure what courses to take. But what we did this year with our program of studies for registration this past January, we actually took our five career pathways, and students could schedule courses by looking at what that pathway, what suggested courses would be in that pathway. So that was very exciting for us this year to actually utilize our career pathways. But the juniors and seniors with the SchooLinks platform, we meet in those SV career pathways. Um, and we're going to keep adding our SV career pathways because there are many outside resources. Um, whether it's career mentoring for education or for career mentoring for business, or if it's career mentoring for the medical field, um, or the health care field, we actually have outside resources that we are attaching to our SV career pathways. So all that is, is very exciting, and we're evolving with that to make resources and other layers of support accessible to not only students, but parents as well. 

 00:16:54:11 - 00:17:24:08
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. I mean, I'm sure anybody listening is probably thinking, well, it's kind of daunting, right? Thinking about what's all involved and planning for after high school. But as you mentioned, the SchooLinks platform and all the professionals, um, and the guidance area of the district can really help and make it more simple and make sense for students. But it's really exciting stuff. Um, before I let you go, Darla or anything else that we haven't touched on that you'd like to let people know? 

 00:17:25:03 - 00:20:01:00
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Um, yeah, I think for ninth and 12th grade, parents and students out there, in addition to our website, which is super, super helpful. Um, we also do monthly guidance, news and notes, newsletters that come out beginning of each month. They'll, um, capture different events, pop up events that we always have that necessarily might not be posted on the website, so they need to look out for that as well. And that comes out, you know, on a monthly basis. But basically just other things I want to share is to, you know, I'm a parent of four, young adults as well. Three of those adults graduated from Seneca Valley. So, um, three of those adults chose the college path. And I had a student, um, a son last year who started an apprenticeship as a junior here at Seneca and as a barber. And he's employed right now as a barber. And, you know, I basically want to say that they all had different planning, planning paths and they all had different career paths. And eventually, you know, they're able to match up their skills, their strengths and their values. And in the end, you know, as I mentioned before, we can guide, guide and structure our children. But, um, you know, giving the kids that power and nurturing their independence is just, you know, is critical so that they have confidence after they graduate from high school and they're pursuing their plans, that they had a stake in that. Um, and it's a process that, you know, sometimes parents and students alike. It's another question that they ask, you know, what if I make the wrong choice or decision? Um, there's no such thing as a wrong choice or decision - you are exploring. And if you can graduate from high school and know that if you constantly are discovering who you are and questioning what you're valuing in the future, you know for your future life and lifestyle, um, that's the best that you can. Do. And when you align careers, college choices, and eventually choosing what workplace you want to go to or what company you want to interview for, um, and that they embody those same values, you're making that good fit. It is a learned process. Yeah, in this discovery. So, you know, can, you know, you could always reset this whole career development process. And it's a journey. 

 00:20:01:07 - 00:20:24:15
Jeff Krakoff: It is, it is. Well, thank you so much. I really enjoyed our discussion. Lots of great information. And again, for anybody listening, lots of information and resources on the website. So again, thank you so much. This was Darla Ramirez-Lightner, who is Coordinator of Collegiate and Career Affairs with Seneca Valley School District. Have a great day. 

 00:20:24:29 - 00:20:26:24
Darla Ramirez-Lightner: Thank you Jeff. Thanks, everyone.