New and Noteworthy from ASCA

New and Noteworthy

College Signing Day: Two years ago, First Lady Michelle Obama announced her Reach Higher Initiative to encourage students to complete their education beyond high school. On April 26, 2016, she will celebrate Reach Higher’s anniversary and wants you to wear your college gear all day to support National College Signing Day. Share pictures of you, your office, your schools and your friends representing their alma maters with the hashtags #ReachHigher and #BetterMakeRoom. Be sure to encourage your high school senrios to represent their colleges as well. Click here to learn how you can host your own signing day event.  Explore the Trades: Explore the Trades is focused on helping student find lucrative careers in the plumbing, heating/cooling and electrical residential service industry. With job growth at 20%, and a 60% turnover of employees by 2020 there are huge opportunities for students to have well-paying careers for life. Visit www.ExploreTheTrades.org for more information. Text, Talk, Act.: Text, Talk, Act is an effective way to educate secondary school students and engage them in conversations about mental health issues. This innovative program utilizes smart phones to guide small-group conversations about a range of topics and directs young people to resources where they can learn more. Small-groups all around the country will participate in Text, Talk, Act as part of National Children’s Mental Health Day on May 5, 2016. Learn more. 2016 National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week: As national events continue to illuminate the critical need for mental health care reform in this country, it becomes more important to increase efforts to educate the nation about the importance of prevention and early identification of mental health challenges. Please join the national dialogue and complete the event submission form with information about the events and activities you will be holding in your community for Children's Mental Health Awareness Week (May 1 - May 7, 2016). Submit your event here. NSA Day of Cyber: The NSA Day of Cyber is an interactive web platform that will enable students to test drive and experience a day in the life of six NSA cyber professionals and introduce them to challenging real-life cyber scenarios, while engaging students to explore the growing number of careers in computer science and cybersecurity. There is no cost to participate. Register with the customized ASCA pre-registration link. School Climate: The U.S. Department of Education recently released new school climate surveys and a quick guide on making school climate improvements to help foster and sustain safe and supportive environments that are conducive to learning for all students. Learn more. Power of Children Awards: The Power of Children Awards celebrate young people in grades 6-11 who help to make the world a better place. Over the past 11 years, 55 winners from 14 states have made an enormous impact. Winning projects vary from local to global, have raised more than $10 million and directly had an impact on 1,919,685 people around the world. The 2016 applications are now open. Learn more and apply. Sector Sheets: Through generous support from Pearson, the Association for Career and Technical Education has produced a series of Sector Fact Sheets describing some of the most prolific and growing industries in the U.S. economy. The fact sheets are based on U.S. Department of Labor data and other sources of economic information. Wide-ranging careers are available to students in these sectors, but employers hiring for those positions face shortages of qualified candidates. Learn more. Scholarship Opportunity: The Freedom From Religion Foundation is offering more than $7,000 in student scholarships for top-ranking essays by college-bound high school seniors in their 2016 annual essay competition. Deadline is June 1, 2016. Learn more. Trauma Exposure in Elementary School Children: Traumatic childhood events can have a significant impact on overall child functioning. Early identification and intervention could offer significant benefits for children's mental health and educational trajectories, but effectively identifying young children is a challenge. Read more. Community College Student Mental Health: Community college students have a high rate of mental health problems, according to the results of a Wisconsin HOPE Lab survey released recently. Nearly half of students surveyed had a recent or current mental health problem; 36 percent had depression and 29 percent had anxiety. Learn more. Connecting Kids to Coverage Campaign: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Connecting Kids to Coverage Campaign is a national initiative to reach and enroll families with eligible children and teens in free or low-cost health coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The campaign provides resources to raise awareness of these programs such as customizable print materials, outreach videos, webinars and social media communications tools you can use to to help you organize and conduct successful outreach activities in your community. Learn more or get involved.