By: Yoruba Butler, strategy director for postsecondary success, Alabama Possible

According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, when students meet one-on-one with a school counselor to discuss their future, they are 3.2 times more likely to attend college.

Every fall, ACT’s American College Application Campaign (ACAC) hosts the #WhyApply social media campaign to encourage students nationwide to apply to college as they plan for their futures. This year, more high schools than ever before participated in ACAC events, helping more than 467,000 seniors submit at least one college application in school, during the school day. A vital part of the campaign’s success is the support efforts of high school counselors and advisors, who guide students through the college application process as part of the ACAC.

As high schools across the country prepare for #WhyApply 2024, Yoruba Butler, strategy director for postsecondary success at Alabama Possible who works closely with the Alabama State Department of Education, discusses the crucial role of high school counselors and advisors in supporting college application success and eliminating barriers to college access.

As a statewide entity, Alabama Possible, through its Alabama Goes to College Campaign works hand-in-hand with Alabama educators to provide them with resources that ease their responsibilities with the college application and admissions process. The campaign offers FAFSA assistance to educators and their students through a help desk and professional development webinars. Whether we meet in person or virtually, our goal is to provide the best assistance that promotes a college-and-career-going culture at their schools.

First, we want to express our deep appreciation for Alabama’s exceptional educators. They have one of the most challenging jobs, and their dedication deserves recognition!

Students thrive when given clear processes. Providing them with a breakdown of dates, timelines, and milestones can reduce stress and improve their ability to complete items in a timely manner. A student’s senior year is already challenging with responsibilities that may have nothing to do with their postsecondary experience — students have familial obligations in addition to their homework, the college application process, and any extracurricular activities or memberships with high school auxiliaries. With this in mind, educators can alleviate some stressors and provide emotional support by encouraging students to remain aware of submission dates and deadlines. They can help students be proactive by creating a tracking document to monitor what steps they have completed and the ones they still have to address. Tracking their progress enables students to see the amount of progress they have made.

Another possible avenue to minimize some of their stressors could be hosting an event focusing on “transparency.” In these events, students freely share concerns with their classmates and discuss various strategies that may have worked or perhaps did not work so well. Openly sharing their experiences allows students to collectively realize that they are not alone on their postsecondary journey.

One of the most common barriers students may encounter during the college access process is the pervasive belief that college is not for them. Attending college is for everyone, though not everyone may choose to attend. Educators are change agents, letting students know that their differences make them unique and that none of these differences should be seen as barriers to college.

We hope that we will be able to disarm and remove the term “first-generation” from our vocabulary in the future. Until then, we know that educators work tirelessly to provide resources for first-generation students and other student populations that are traditionally underresourced. Supporting these students requires collaboration, not isolation. The best resource to encourage this student population is exposure, including college campus visits, encouraging students to participate in dual-enrollment programs, and inviting guest speakers to share their personal experiences with students. By being inclusive and transparent, what a student may see as a barrier now could be the very thing that someone else realized is an asset, thanks to the guidance and knowledge our educators provide.

Another common barrier is the thought that education is not affordable. Some students may not even consider a postsecondary pathway because they believe it will financially burden their families. As it relates to the financial aid process, and as we experienced this year with the FAFSA, students are also sometimes heavily affected by conditions outside their control. These conditions include language barriers or having parents who are undocumented. Alabama Possible is fortunate to have a close partnership with a community-based organization in the Birmingham metropolitan area that has expertise in serving this population. Their valuable assistance has enabled educators to call on them when they have needed interpreters and translators.

High schools and communities can support educators by providing dedicated time, opportunities for collaboration, and material or financial resources for postsecondary planning. External organizations can hold informational meetings or volunteer their time to assist students during on-site college application events. Goal setting and accomplishing goals come with a change in students’ thought processes. Therefore, it is critical to provide students with resume writing workshops, mock interview exercises, internships, and community-student mentorship programs. These activities not only provide exposure but also provide students with an alternate way of seeing how and why a postsecondary journey — and planning it — is so important.

Our most precious commodity is time. If we could grant our educators more than 24 hours in a day, it would be the greatest gift of all. Since we can’t extend the day, we can instead support our educators through campuswide initiatives that share the responsibility of the planning process. The importance of staff and administrative engagement from the day a student begins high school is crucial. There are benefits to being proactive and not waiting until senior year to expose students to the benefits of postsecondary education and training. This way, younger students are being prepared in advance by joining conversations, participating in workshops, attending college fairs, and volunteering at events that support and celebrate seniors’ postsecondary journeys. In closing, we’d like to highlight one of the most innovative and ambitious approaches shared by an educator this past academic year. They created a collaborative Google Drive folder where their students could create and share a folder with the educator. In this folder, students could add important documents like resumes, certificates and awards, letters of recommendation, and any essays they had written. This ingenious initiative encouraged student responsibility while also allowing the educator to provide any needed assistance, fostering a supportive and organized environment.