Updates for Class of 2020 and Class of 2021

SAT/ACT

Late Registration for the March 9 SAT is happening now.
Deadline for April ACT is March 8, 2019

COLLEGE INFORMATION SESSIONS/OPEN HOUSES

Colleges That Change Lives Presentation
Saturday March 16
10am
Stony Brook Middle School 
or

May 18, 2019

10am
Sheraton Boston Hotel
More details at http://ctcl.org/info-sessions


Mississippi State University Spring Preview Day
March 25
To learn more, visit springpreview.msstate.edu

SUMMER PROGRAMS

American University Community of Scholars at School of International Service
For more information, visit www.american.edu/sis/communityofscholars

Boston University's Academy of Media Production Summer Program

Creative high school students develop their cinematic and journalistic storytelling skills producing films, videos, multi-camera productions and more.

Program dates: July 8 - August 2
The application deadline is March 31, 2019
Apply at bu.edu/amp

Boston University Summer Pre-College Program
Visit bu.edu/summer/highschool to learn about the different opportunities:
High School Honors
RISE Internship/Practicum
Academic Immersion
Summer Challenge

Summer Preview

CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE YOUNG WRITERS' CONFERENCE, MAY 24-26
Now in our nineteenth year, our doors are open to high school students who wish to share their passion for story, drama, and song with their writerly brothers and sisters—and with celebrated New England authors. We offer three days of readings, improv, Moth storytelling, poetry slams, literary jazz/blues fusion, and extended friendship on the hillside campus of Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.

OUR 2019 KEYNOTE SPEAKER IS AWARD-WINNING SINGER, SONGWRITER, & COMPOSER, MOIRA SMILEY. Moira's work can be heard on BBC TV & radio, NPR, PBS, ABC Australia's Books & Arts, in feature films, and on more than sixty albums. She performs regularly with her group, VOCO, and has toured with leading artists around the world—including tUnE-yArDs, Paul Hillier's Theater of Voices, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, KITKA, the Irish super-group Solas, grammy-winning pianist, Billy Childs, The Lomax Project, and the New World Symphony. Recent solo performances include TED, Stravinsky's Les Noces, and the London Proms Festival. In 2018, Moira released her latest solo album and choral songbook, Unzip The Horizon, and an upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall will be devoted to her work.

The APPLICATION DEADLINE of March 8 is fast approaching and the blue lights are flashing. If you have a tale to spin, or a story to share, please visit our website: http://www.champlain.edu/write

Cornell University Summer College Programs for High School Students

Cornell's Summer College is one of the nation's longest running and most highly regarded precollege academic programs. It brings more than 1,500 academically talented high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors from around the world to the Cornell campus in Ithaca, New York, each summer for three- and six-week programs.

Summer College students have the unparalleled opportunity to: experience what it's like to live and learn at a great Ivy League university, take real university courses, work closely with Cornell's world-renowned faculty, earn three to six college credits, explore majors and career options, get a jump on successful college applications, make friends from around the world, and much, much more. This summer, we will offer programs between June 22 and August 6 in a wide variety of subjects, ranging from architecture, business, hospitality, and engineering to international relations, science, social change, and veterinary medicine—and many more.

University of Delaware Edge
Five weeks, credit-bearing college experience
July 7 - August 10
More information and application can be found at www.udel.edu/edge

Marist Summer Pre-College Programs
Various programs of different duration
For more information and to apply, visit marist.edu/precollege.

Tufts Pre-College Programs
https://summer.tufts.edu/high-school


Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies
Various programs that are subject specific
Open to grades 8-12
Apply today at spcs.stanford.edu/find-yourself

Summer for Success Immersion Experience at Beacon College 
Throughout the program, your student will develop the basic academic, social and planning skills that they need in order to become a confident, independent, successful college student. They will be able to immediately apply these strategies to their final year in high school and to the college admissions process.
Click HERE for a complete, detailed program description and a typical day’s schedule. Scholarships for the Summer for Success program are available for students in need, but they should apply early for first-come first-serve consideration.
Prepares LD/ADHD students for the transition to college with personalized, strategic coursework as well as off-campus activities, while living on our campus in Leesburg, FL with other students who learn differently.

Summerfuel
Programs offered in Pre-College, business & social enterprise, cultural exploration, and art/technology/design
Visit summerfuel.com for more information

13th Annual $5000 A. James Lavoie Essay Contest Scholarship

13th Annual $5000 A. James Lavoie Essay Contest Scholarship

To be eligible for scholarship consideration, applicants must demonstrate financial need, academic achievement, and community involvement. They must also plan to attend a four-year college program, and graduate from one the many public, charter, or vocational high schools in the communities we serve. The winner is selected from among eligible applicants by an independent committee on the basis of strength and quality of submitted essays. 

*Scholarship Criteria

Eligible Scholarship Applicants must:

• Present eveidence of good academic standing - GPA of at least 3.0 for junior & senior years
• Exhibit active community involvement- a committment to the community as demonstrated through community service, work, and/or extra-curricular activities
• Demonstrate Financial need
• Show plans to enroll in a 4-year program
• Submit a written essay and scholarship application

The 2019 application period is now open and students may submit their applications online. 

• https://www.middlesexbank.com/about-us/community-support/middlesex-savings-charitable-foundation

We will be announcing the winner on Wednesday, May 1st on their website www.middlesexbank.com.

*Transcripts are required for this application.  In order for transcripts to be submitted by the deadline, notification that you have applied for this scholarship must be submitted to Lynda Vernalia in Guidance no later than March 18th, 2019.

Article - Why Girls Beat Boys at School and Lose to Them at the Office

From elementary school through college, girls are more disciplined about their schoolwork than boys; they study harder and get better grades. Girls consistently outperform boys academically. And yet, men nonetheless hold a staggering 95 percent of the top positions in the largest public companies.

What if those same habits that propel girls to the top of their class — their hyper-conscientiousness about schoolwork — also hold them back in the work force?

When investigating what deters professional advancement for women, the journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman found that a shortage of competence is less likely to be an obstacle than a shortage of confidence. When it comes to work-related confidence, they found men are far ahead.

“Underqualified and underprepared men don’t think twice about leaning in,” they wrote. 

“Overqualified and overprepared, too many women still hold back. Women feel confident only when they are perfect.”

As a psychologist who works with teenagers, I hear this concern often from the parents of many of my patients. They routinely remark that their sons do just enough to keep the adults off their backs, while their daughters relentlessly grind, determined to leave no room for error. The girls don’t stop until they’ve polished each assignment to a high shine and rewritten their notes with color-coded precision.

We need to ask: What if school is a confidence factory for our sons, but only a competence factory for our daughters?

This possibility hit me when I was caring for an eighth grader in my practice. She got terrific grades but was feeling overwhelmed by school. Her brother, a ninth grader, had similarly excellent grades, but when I asked if he worked as hard as she did, she scoffed. If she worked on an assignment for an hour and got an A, she felt “safe” only if she spent a full hour on other assignments like it. Her brother, in contrast, flew through his work. When he brought home an A, she said, he felt “like a stud.” If his grades slipped a bit, he would take his effort up just a notch. But she never felt “safe” enough to ever put in less than maximum effort.

That experience — of succeeding in school while exerting minimal or moderate effort — is a potentially crucial one. It may help our sons develop confidence, as they see how much they can accomplish simply by counting on their wits. For them, school serves as a test track, where they build their belief in their abilities and grow increasingly at ease relying on them. Our daughters, on the other hand, may miss the chance to gain confidence in their abilities if they always count on intellectual elbow grease alone.

So how do we get hyper-conscientious girls (and boys, as there certainly are some with the same style) to build both confidence and competence at school?

First, parents and teachers can stop praising inefficient overwork, even if it results in good grades. Gendered approaches to learning set in early, so it’s never too soon to start working against them. Recently, as I read “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” to my 8-year-old daughter, I stopped at a passage in which Hermione — the fictional poster child for academic fastidiousness — turned in an essay that was “two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for.” Hermione, I pointed out, doesn’t make great use of her time. She’s a capable student and could probably do just as well without working so hard. “Right,” my daughter said. “Of course she could!”

We can also encourage girls toward a different approach to school — one that’s more focused on economy of effort, rather than how many hours they put in. Whenever one of the academically impressive and persistently anxious girls in my practice tells me about staying up until 2 in the morning studying, I see an opening. That’s the moment to push them to become tactical, to figure out how to continue learning and getting the same grades while doing a little bit less. I urge my patients — and my own teenage daughter — to begin study sessions by taking sample tests, to see how much they know before figuring out how much more they need to do to attain mastery over a concept or task. Many girls build up an incredible capacity for work, but they need these moments to discover and take pride in how much they already understand.

Teachers, too, can challenge girls’ over-the-top tendencies. When a girl with a high-A average turns in extra credit work, her instructor might ask if she is truly taken with the subject or if she is looking to store up “insurance points,” as some girls call them. If it’s the former, more power to her. If it’s the latter, the teacher might encourage the student to trust that what she knows and the work she is already doing will almost certainly deliver the grade she wants. Educators can also point out to this student that she may not need insurance; she probably has a much better grasp of the material than she gives herself credit for.

Finally, we can affirm for girls that it is normal and healthy to feel some anxiety about school. Too often, girls are anxious even about being anxious, so they turn to excessive studying for comfort. We can remind them that being a little bit nervous about schoolwork just means that they care about it, which of course they should.

Even if neither you nor your daughter cares about becoming a chief executive, you may worry that she will eventually be crushed by the weight of her own academic habits. While a degree of stress promotes growth, working at top speed in every class at all times is unhealthy and unsustainable for even the most dedicated high school students. A colleague of mine likes to remind teenagers that in classes where any score above 90 counts as an A, the difference between a 91 and a 99 is a life.

To be sure, the confidence gap is hardly the only thing keeping women out of top jobs. Women also face gender bias, sexual harassment and powerful structural barriers in the workplace. But confidence at school is one unequal advantage that we can address right now. Instead of standing by as our daughters make 50 flashcards when they were assigned 20, we can step in and ask them why. Many professional men brim with confidence because they have spent years getting to know their abilities. Women should arrive in the work world having done the same.

Caps & Gowns - Class of 2019 - Graduation

Seniors who have not ordered their caps and gowns for graduation, please use the link below to place your order online as soon as possible.  If you have any questions, please see Mrs. Langille in the Main Office.  And please note that this year, graduates may select either maroon OR white caps and gowns. https://buildagrad.com/westford

MetroHacks Women Free Event

Date: Saturday, February 23rd, 2019

Time: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm (Sign-in begins at 8:15 am)

Location: Microsoft NERD Center (1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA)

Registration is open now at www.metrohacks.org/register!

Thanks to our wonderful partners and sponsors, the event is free for all students. If you have any questions, please visit www.metrohacks.org or reach me at shrunothra@metrohacks.org. 

A brief video highlighting our women's event last year can be found here.

Bryant Global Leadership Summer Program

Bryant Global Leadership Summer Program is the place to begin the journey of discovering your passion and realizing your potential. Please join us from Monday, June 17th - Friday, June 21st.

Our program is uniquely designed to help high school students explore a career in international business, prepare for college life, learning, and meet students and professionals from around the world. We use a combination of interactive teaching methods and exposure to real-world experience in international finance, marketing, management, and global supply chain management to help them grow and become innovative leaders. Bryant’s International Business program has been ranked #25 in the country by the prestigious U.S. New World Report.  One of the University’s most popular and fast-growing programs, International Business has climbed steadily in the rankings since its first class graduated in 2008.  The program attracts some of the most academically accomplished men and women from around the country.

During this transformational five-day overnight experience, students will get to visit local businesses, listen to successful leaders from around the world, and learn from Bryant’s international business professors, and network with alumni.

Space is limited and there is an application process to attend this leadership program. Students must be rising juniors or seniors. Scholarships are available. Students can APPLY HERE, by Monday, April 8, 2019 to be considered