11-14-13: Washington State University welcomes seniors to college during onsite
Surrounded by crimson and gray banners and balloons, Washington State
University representatives offered college admission to more than 30
Emerald Ridge High School seniors last month during a luncheon
celebration in the high school library.
The offer to attend WSU is part of the university’s new onsite
admission program launched this fall at high schools throughout
Washington state.
Emerald Ridge High is the first high school to host the onsite
admission event for qualified seniors, who have been working this past
month to complete their online admission applications and submit
necessary paperwork, including transcripts.
Puyallup and Rogers high schools will host similar WSU onsite admission events on November 25 and 26.
Tafona Brar, WSU associate director of recruitment, handed each of
the future WSU Cougars a certificate of acceptance and shouted several
“Go Cougs!” cheers during the admissions ceremony.
Brar also discussed next steps for students, including applying for
scholarships and student housing, as well as attending new student
orientation.
While the university has offered onsite admission before in high
schools statewide, they have been on a much smaller scale and not as a
formalized university program teaming both the WSU admissions and
recruitment offices, Brar said.
She said she chose Emerald Ridge High to launch the program this year
because of the successful working relationship she has established with
the school during career fairs in previous years, as well as the
interest among students in attending the college.
Senior Claire Benson is one of the nearly three dozen students
accepted to the university and showed up for the luncheon in a crimson
WSU Cougar sweatshirt. Benson said she plans to pursue a degree in
nursing and has her sights set on becoming a pediatric nurse.
Benson said she chose WSU because of its nursing program, the Pullman
community atmosphere, and the many people in her family who have
attended the college. She said it is a relief to know two months into
her senior year where she will attend college next year.
“I really like having my college all planned out early,” she said.
Career
Specialist Patti McMullan, Career Center secretary Jacki Browning, and
Counseling Center secretary Beth Hawn worked with seniors over the past
month to help them prepare for the onsite admission event on October 31.
They helped students learn how to apply to colleges online, navigate
college website information, secure their high school transcripts, and
request financial assistance.
“I felt it was very powerful for students to have their admission to college so early in their senior year,” McMullan said.
The WSU onsite admission is part of a larger “College Application
Campaign” that McMullan and Emerald Ridge High School counselors
organized this fall to help seniors with post-secondary plans.
The University of Washington Seattle and Central Washington
University college representatives visited Emerald Ridge High in
October, for example, to share information about their campuses and
answer students’ questions during panel presentations.
Whitworth and Pacific Lutheran universities are scheduled to visit this month, McMullan said.
The College Application Campaign will also feature a career
information day for students in the Advancement Via Individual
Determination (AVID) program on November 14 and an hour of online
application help in the school career center on November 15.
Emerald Ridge High is partnering with the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of
Commerce for the November 13 career information day. Panelists will
include community members in careers including fire sciences, education,
medical, apprenticeship, entrepreneur, engineering, information
technology, and law enforcement.
Community members will discuss their careers and the obstacles they
had to overcome to get their jobs, McMullan said. They also will advise
students what education is needed in high school and beyond to prepare
for those careers.
The school’s college application campaign, including the WSU onsite
admission event, comes just weeks after the Puyallup School Board
formalized a partnership with the University of Washington Tacoma that
will expand post-secondary educational opportunities for Puyallup School
District students.
The “Pathway to Partnership” enables students to be considered for
automatic acceptance as freshmen at the UW Tacoma campus if they meet
agreed-upon admission requirements.
“Part of our duty as educators is to help students access
opportunities beyond high school,” said Mark Knight, executive director
of college and career readiness. “Sometimes the next step is hard to
navigate, and that is especially true when it comes to college
enrollment procedures. This partnership with WSU, as well as the
Pathway to Promise program with the University of Washington Tacoma,
will help simplify the admissions process and get our students on the
road to college.”