Every year, juniors decorate their crowns to match their personalities and the energy they want to carry into their last year of high school. Last May, the Class of 2024 put their crowns on to represent them stepping into the next phase of their lives: senior year. But what about all the responsibilities that follow it?

After officially becoming seniors, many students had one thing immediately pop into their head: college. The pressures of college applications, making sure you represent yourself properly, and most importantly, that you send yourself to a place in which you can flourish and grow, is sky high. 

As the leaves turn into different colors and go through new phases, seniors themselves are getting ready for the next phase of their life. Throughout the fall semester of high school, seniors are getting ready to send an accurate representation of themselves to colleges around the world. This application process comes with a variety of steps that ask for lots of general information, including a list of extracurriculars and legal guardian credentials. 

As one goes through more and more of a college’s required questions, it gets more intense: academic transcripts, letters of recommendation, personal essays, and more fill up seniors’ plates. With these requirements, students are forced to strip parts of their high school selves from freshman, sophomore, and junior year all the way up until this very moment. Taking the good and the bad parts of their high school career and putting it all together can be a very stressful experience. 

However, Ms. Perez, PPCHS administrator, is there to guide everyone through the process. 

A prime example of how Ms. Perez puts herself into the shoes of the students is with the informative emails she sends out. In one of them, she sent out positive messages to the seniors with a “cheat sheet” in order to help students be organized. “I know this is an extremely stressful time for you all having to worry about college applications and where you should be starting, so I have created a “Cheat Sheet” to get you going. I have provided you with a simple guide to help you know what you have to do. I’ve tried to eliminate the struggles of going everywhere to access what you need.” With this, Ms. Perez creates a comfortable and encouraging environment for the students in order to feel like they have support in their corners. 

Class of 2024 guidance counselor, Ms. Scott, is there as well to cheer and give an extended hand to the seniors when needed. With the constant presence of Ms. Perez and Ms. Scott, it is very important for seniors to be on the lookout for the duo’s wise words on how to heighten their chances of getting into the colleges of their choice. One of Ms. Scott’s main pieces of advice is to maintain an organized and positive outlook on such a stressful situation.

Ms. Scott voices her outlook on how to handle such stress. “I’m a very visual person, so my advice is to write out your plan for college. Also, you have to make sure to step back and take a deep breath.” If a student is trying to plan their future with not even a sense of coordination, how will this aid them?

The chance of a student’s dream life comes with the reality of having to dig deep within one’s self and share it within their application. A vital part of the application is the personal college essay. A senior’s academic transcript will only tell a college admissions office the hardest classes they’ve taken. However, the main part that is missing is who they really are as an individual. 

“I believe that the essays are the most crucial part of the application process. With this essay, we are able to see who you really are. You know, we don’t care about the hard classes you are taking and something small that occurred in your life. We want to know what you stand for, what you value, what you have contributed to the community, and about things that make you, you,” Ms. Scott passionately explains. It is extremely powerful to put these stories and your voice together in order to shine a strong light on your application. 

Determined, strong headed, and diligent are words to describe the class of 2024 students. While this is a very difficult task and stressful at most, seniors are taking it head first. Eduardo Steinmann strongly states his way of navigating through it all. “I feel kind of stressed and overwhelmed, but I think it’s important to try and be organized. I just think you need to clear your head and focus on when the deadlines are due and work towards it consistently.”

As seniors walk through their last year of high school together, they are preparing themselves for the next four years of their life. While this can be a hard time for most, it is important to maintain a strong mindset and also recognize the support system here at Charter.