High school students - change and stress

High-school students who participate in classroom exercises focused on the idea that people can change may be better able to cope with stress, according to a study published in Psychological Science. Data from two small-scale trials show students taking part in such exercises reported lower stress levels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/health/teenagers-stress-coping-skills.html?WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl&_r=0

Resilience Info - Site and Resources

http://www.nationalresilienceinstitute.org/resiliency-matters-tv/

 

Fourth Annual Iowa School Mental Health Conference

The Fourth Annual Iowa School Mental Health Conference, hosted by Please Pass the Love and sponsored by NAMI GDM. Our conference is on Thursday, October 13, 2016 at The Holiday Inn-Airport in Des Moines, Iowa. As the board for the Iowa School Counselor Association, it is our hope that this information could be distributed to school counselors across the state. As you are aware, mental health is a very important issue in our state and in our schools. We have a very exciting conference lined up with some wonderful breakout sessions regarding all aspects of mental health. Attached is our flyer with more information. The registration fee is $75. The registration does close on October 6th. You can register online at www.regonline.com/iowasmhc 

We would greatly appreciate you passing along this information on this important conference. You can find more information about our agency and the conference at www.pleasepassthelove.org. 

Thank you in advance! 

Emmalee Bowlin

Operations Director

www.pleasepassthelove.org 

There are two major changes coming to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process this year.

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Reach Higher Newsletter #2 First Lady Michelle Obama is getting the word out about Up Next, a new free text-messaging tool that supports students by providing useful tips about postsecondary education and financial aid. Find out more below! FAFSA Launch There are two major changes coming to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process this year.  First, the 2017-18FAFSA will be available to students and families earlier.  Students can file on October 1, 2016, rather than on January 1, 2017.  Second, starting with the 2017-18 FAFSA, students will use previous income and tax information.  For example, students – and their parents, as appropriate – will report their 2015 income and tax information, rather than their 2016 income and tax information.  How will these changes benefit students?  On the front end, students will no longer have to use estimates or log in later to update their FAFSA after filing taxes, and they may be able to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to automatically import tax information into their FAFSA.  On the back end, students will have additional time to meet most deadlines and explore and understand their financial aid options. Students can already obtain their FSA ID, which you can learn more about in this video. Department officials have been answering back-to-school comments and questions about the FAFSA via social media platforms – here is a sampling of some of the most popular tweets with agency responses. Also, the Department’s partners have advice for counselors as they organize events and prepare to help students and parents through the financial aid process. Here are creative ways to make the process fun. Students can also text "COLLEGE" to 44044 to receive important reminders about financial aid and FAFSA filing. For more federal student aid information and outreach tools, register for a FAFSA webinar, join the FAFSA email distribution list, and check out the Department's Financial Aid Toolkit. Reach Higher App Challenge Winner Last month, the First Lady announced ThinkZone Games as the grand prize winner of the Reach Higher Career App Challenge. The Reach Higher Initiative and the Department of Education launched the Challenge last fall, calling on innovators to develop mobile app solutions that will help students navigate education and career pathways, including career and technical education. ThinkZone Games will receive $100,000 and additional sponsor prizes for their career exploration mobile app Hats & Ladders. Hats & Ladders engages middle and high school students with swipe-to-choose self-assessments, connected activities, and mini-challenges. By providing repeat exposure to a broad spectrum of careers, it enables students to draw connections between their personal attributes and multiple pathways to career success. Learn more about the Challenge and winning team here. The winning Hats & Ladders team, from left to right: Benjamin Galynker, Scott Brewster, Michelle King, David Langendoen Up Next Day of Action First Lady Michelle Obama recently launched Up Next, Better Make Room's new tool that gives students, their parents, and school counselors free personalized support on all things college – college search and application, federal student aid, even student loan repayment – all through texting. Research has shown that these texts can significantly increase students’ college enrollment and persistence – IF students sign up. This is where you come in.  On September 30th, schools, communities, and organizations across the country are taking action to get students signed up for Up Next and to celebrate the road to a postsecondary degree. Find out how your school or organization can get involved by checking out theUp Next Day of Action Toolkit.  Thanks for getting YOUR students engaged with the First Lady's new tool! Find out more about Up Next here. White House Report on Next Gen High Schools  The White House recently released a progress report on Next Generation High Schools, which you can find here. Next Generation High Schools (NGHS) are schools that use evidence-based strategies to make high schools more engaging and help better prepare students for college. NGHS specialize in providing personalized coursework and hands-on experience that align with college and career standards and expectations. The purpose of NGHS are to improve high school completion and readiness for college and careers. NGHS have educators who are strong in all subjects, including STEM. NGHS use six evidence-based strategies to improve U.S. high schools for the next generation: 1)      Participation in rigorous curriculum: 2)      Small learning communities/small schools of choice: 3)      Career academics 4)      Dual enrollment: 5)      Early college high schools 6)      College and career counseling: In the coming months the Department will release a series of briefs about specific high school strategies in order to improve graduation rates, based on its survey of 2,142 public high schools. Counselors in Action With a goal to strengthen, align, and expand the college-going pipeline at the local, state, and national level through school counselor leadership and collaborative partnerships, 42 states have committed to contributing to Reach Higher's mission, many by setting long-term goals such as increasing FAFSA completion rates, the percentage of students who visit college campuses, and student exposure to work-based learning opportunities.  Below are some highlights from the most recent Reach Higher Convenings, which focus on this work. A big thanks to all who made these convenings such a huge success, and a special thanks to The National Consortium for School Counseling and Postsecondary Success for its support!  We look forward to continuing this important work with everyone in the days ahead. New England Convening Better Make Room Director Don Yu spoke at the New England Reach Higher Convening about Up Next, the First Lady's new college support text-messaging tool. On August 16, 2016, 250 school counselors and college access, financial aid, and higher education professionals from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont gathered at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, for the New England Reach Higher convening to learn more about about the Reach Higher Initiative and how to collaborate to inspire more young people throughout New England to reach higher beyond high school. Speakers included Josh Steckel, Senior College and Career Planning Manager for New York City’s College Access for All Initiative, New York Dept of Education; Francesco Cesareo, Assumption College President; Mitchell Chester, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; and Carlos Santiago, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.  The convening provided the opportunity for three states to begin their Reach Higher efforts and for the other three to continue their initiatives. DC National Reach Higher Convening The final National Reach Higher convening of the Obama Administration will take place October 28 - 30 at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. This event is for the Reach Higher State Team school counselors community. The convening is entitled, "Connecting the Dots: Cultural Competence, Counseling, and Career Readiness of Underserved Youth." Thanks to Dr. Cheryl Holcom-McCoy for her leadership in planning this event. If you are part of this coalition, please reach out to your state team lead for more information about this event. Thank you for the life-changing work you do every day, and for equipping and encouraging students to Reach Higher! “College was the most impactful thing I've done in my life other than being the First Lady and having kids and marrying Barack Obama. College did everything for me. It built my confidence. It taught me that I could leave home and be successful away from home. It taught me how to open up, how to try new things that are scary, how to buck expectations and beat the odds.”  - Mrs. Obama, on a surprise visit to college freshmen at Howard University, 9/1/2016. Table of Contents FAFSA Launch Reach Higher App Challenge Winner Up Next Day of Action White House Report on Next Gen High Schools Counselors in Action College Scorecard 1 Year of Better Make Room! #CollegeFriday Surprise! First Lady on Campus Previously on Reach Higher College Scorecard The College Scorecard is an interactive website that provides the clearest, most accessible, and most reliable national data on college costs, graduation rates, typical debt levels, and post-college earnings so that students can make the most informed choice possible in selecting a good-value college. See this how-to-guide and video for how to best utilize the Scorecard, this toolkitfor spreading the word about the Scorecard, and this flyer for more information about the College Scorecard and the FAFSA. 1 Year of Better Make Room! October 19th is the one-year anniversary of Better Make Room, the First Lady's campaign to directly reach underserved, college-aspiring students! Watch this PSA featuring celebs (including Robert DeNiro!), andlearn more about Better Make Room. #CollegeFriday Better Make Room is hosting #CollegeFridays. Have your students wear college t-shirts to school, and get them signed up for free college support through text-messages by texting COLLEGE to 44044! Surprise! First Lady on Campus On September 1st, the First Lady surprised freshmen at Howard University, giving them advice and speaking about her own experience as a first-generation college student with Late Night host Seth Myers and actor and current Howard freshman Nick Cannon. Check out the video! Previously on Reach Higher Check out previous editions of the Reach Higher Newsletter: RH Newsletter #1 Reach Higher is the First Lady's effort to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, or a four-year college or university.  To learn more follow us on Twitter@ReachHigher and Instagram @ReachHigher2020.

Fair Opportunity Project's College Application Guide

I'm a student helping with Fair Opportunity Project’s College Application Guide, a free resource being sent to every public school in the US. We organized a team of 20+ college students, 10 advisors, and 200 high school counselors from across the nation to write a free college admissions and financial aid guide that has been reviewed and praised by many of the nation’s leading college admissions committees. We are sending the guide out to every public school in the country, in the hopes that you can forward it to your community’s high school students.

To be clear, this is an independent project and no one is making money from it. Our team doesn’t like the disparity in resources between students who can afford private college consultants and those who can’t. We believe that all students should have free access to the best college application and financial aid information, regardless of background. We want to make the information and resources that elite private college counselors sell to all students available for free. And we’d like your help with that.

Please share the guide, which we’ve attached as a PDF, with any and all students in your community who would benefit from it. Alternatively, they can download the guide directly from our website, fairopportunityproject.com. Any and all feedback, from students, counsellors, teachers, administration, or whomever, would be much appreciated, and can be (provided on the website) directed HERE.

Students’ ability to pay for outside resources shouldn’t influence the quality of college application information they receive. We’re very excited to offer you a guide of the highest quality, that can continually be expanded and improved year by year. You are an essential part of this project. Together, we hope, we can level the college application playing field, and get every student the best college admittance information.

Many thanks,

Cole

Fair Opportunity Project

advised by:

Richard Barth (CEO, KIPP Foundation)

Michael Brown (CEO/Co-Founder, City Year)

Katherine K. Merseth (Founder, Harvard Teacher Fellows)

Ruth Rathblott (CEO, Harlem Education Activities Fund)

The New York City Department of Education

Marquitta Speller (Executive Director for Secondary and Collegiate Programs, The Harlem Children’s Zone)

Stephanie Khurana (Managing Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation)

Elissa Salas (CEO, College Track)

Thomas Willis (CEO, Cornerstone Charter Schools)

W J O’Reilly (Board Chairman, The Hanal School)

Articles on Social-Emotional development and Mental Health

Two great articles on Mental Health

Commission Formed to Advance Schools' Focus on Social, Emotional Development

Here's How Schools Can Support Students' Mental Health

Stop Hunger Scholarships

The Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholarships, funded by the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, recognize students who are driving awareness and mobilizing youth to be catalysts for innovative models and solutions to eliminate hunger in America. Applicants must have demonstrated ongoing commitment to their community by performing unpaid volunteer services impacting hunger in the United States within the last 12 months. Additional consideration is given to students working to fight childhood hunger. Students between the ages of five and 25 are eligible to apply. The winners receive a $5,000 scholarship, as well as a $5,000 grant made in their name to the hunger-related charity of their choice in their local community. In addition, regional honorees receive a $1,000 grant made in their name to the hunger-related charity of their choice. Applications may be submitted online from October 5 through December 5, 2016. Visit the Foundation’s website to learn more about the program http://us.stop-hunger.org/home/grants.html.

US Attorney Meeting

Kevin VanderSchel, Acting US Attorney from the Southern District of Iowa is asking for a group of concerned HS Counselors to gather input regarding the most effective ways to communicate about heroin/opioid drug abuse with students, teachers and parents. He has asked for a meeting next Tuesday, September 27 from 9:30-11:30 at Heartland. Would you or any of your other counselors be interested/able to attend? This is very important and he truly wants your input. If you cannot attend in person, I will be setting up a zoom meeting as well. Please feel free to pass along this request to other HS Counselors you know, but I need to know who will be attending either in person or zoom. Please email me at sschirmer@heartlandaea.org if you will be able to attend.

Scholarship Opportunity

Please click here for information about a scholarship opportunity for your students from IEHA. The application can be found here.

Kognito Free to Iowa Educators!!

The Iowa Department of Public Health is sharing a free online resource, Kognito, which is available to schools through Sept. 29.

Access a wealth of resources and engage in online training simulations designed to prepare teachers, administrators and school staff:

• To recognize when a student is exhibiting signs of psychological distress, and manage a conversation with the student with the goal of connecting them with the appropriate support.
• To support students who may be struggling due to harassment or exclusion related to sexual identity, sexual orientation or other differences.
  

For more information, click on this link for an informational pamphlet or visit the Kognito website.