By: Megan Wilson

High school is full of a lot of stress and hard work.  For most, the thought of summer keeps them going, but for 78 of us there is much more to look forward to. Here at Eisenhower, we have 78 students who will be graduating and moving on to the next part of life.  While most know what they are going to do, there are some who may still be undecided. Here is a guide to help you make sure you are on the right track.

First, make sure you have all your credits. Whether you want to go to college or not, you will need to have 27 credits in order to graduate. The best step to take for this is to go to Mr. Demorest and check with him. If you plan on going to college, make sure to take your ACT or SAT. You can get information regarding when and where you can take these tests in the guidance office or at collegeboard.com. When you apply to colleges, you can use the common app, which is a website you can fill in one form and use as the completed application for multiple colleges. It can get tiresome to apply over and over to colleges, but with the common app you only fill in one application and can easily find the colleges you want to go to and send them the application.

Next, it is important to sign up for scholarships and do your FASFA. There are many ways to find scholarships. You can go online, to the library, or talk to a guidance counselor. There are scholarships for anything and everything. Are you left handed? There is a scholarship for that! Are you into computers? There are scholarships for you! Although it is important to apply for scholarships, the most important thing for your future if you plan to attend college is the FASFA. The FASFA is important because it is necessary to complete if you need assistance paying for college. Through the FASFA, you can get not only federal assistance in the form of student loans, but also get state grants, which is free money you don’t have to pay back. If you need help completing the FASFA forms, stop in the guidance office for some assistance.

For any who want to play a sport in college, it is never too late to contact coaches and make an NSCA account. While you can easily go on the college websites and find the coach’s contact info, the best way to get noticed is through NCSA. With NCSA, coaches can easily find you and offer you a position, whatever sport you want to play. The thing with NCSA is that it costs money, so, if it is too expensive, don’t give up. There are other options. You personally emailing the coaches and sending them videos of you playing can make a huge difference. Although it is better to start looking for recruitment in your junior year, there is no deadline to when you can start searching for a team. Because I hadn’t learned about NCSA or hadn’t contacted coaches yet, I didn’t think I would get any offers. I tried anyways and, to my surprise, I got multiple offers. I am not the best soccer player, so I didn’t think I would get anything, but you don’t know until you try. I took the initiative and tried and ended up getting an amazing scholarship for a great soccer team in North Carolina.

The Squire sat down with Emily Rutsky, one of our seniors, to see how she is preparing for graduation.

The Squire: What have you been doing to help you not be overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being a senior?

Emily Rutsky: I have been hanging with my friends and relaxing.

TS: What do you think is the most important responsibility a senior has?

ER: I believe the most important responsibility of being a senior is passing classes and getting into college.

TS: How are you preparing for graduation?

ER: I have applied to five colleges and, so far, have been accepted into four of them. I am waiting for one more because it is the college I really want to go to.

TS: Have you picked out what college to go to?

ER: I have decided that I want to go to Grove City because I really want to play for their softball team.

TS: How did you know that Grove City is the college for you?

ER: I chose Grove City as my number one college because it is far enough from home that I will have freedom, but close enough that I can easily come home when I want. I also want to be part of their softball team as mentioned before.

TS: Have you decided what you want to major in?

ER: Yes, I have decided to major in Political Science.

TS: When did you decide to major in Political Science?

ER: At the end of last school year, I decided that this would be my major. I chose it because it really interested me and I can see myself doing it.

TS: What advice do you have for your classmates and future seniors?

ER: Try to have fun and hang out with friends as often as you can because you will graduate and won’t see your friends often after graduation.

TS: If you could go back in time is there anything you would change?

ER: Probably nothing, for I feel like I had a good school life.

While it is important to do all of these things to graduate, make sure that you make time to relax and enjoy your last year. Go to dances, watch Netflix, go to school events and show your school pride, hangout with friends. Like Emily Rutsky said, it is important to spend time with your friends because once you graduate everyone will go their own different path and you will not see them as often. Good luck, seniors!