"Counseling Kids to Graduation and Beyond," LA Times, op-ed

In the article, the author discusses how kids in the California public school system aren't getting enough academic counseling and many are left unprepared for the college admissions process, both in terms of having the right classes and in knowing how much school will cost and what financial aid options are available to them.

An afterschool program called KidsFirst did the research that outed this problem and one of their solutions is to create a peer-counseling group within a school to help take some of the burden off the often sole counselor assigned to it.

Reading this, I thought of my father, a retired admissions director from a small liberal arts college: would he be interested in helping out (volunteering) with kids who don't have any or enough guidance? I sent him an email; we'll see what he says.

But in keeping with the KidsFirst program to create peer-counselors, another idea would be to create "peer" counselors from the freshman classes of nearby universities. Freshman who are looking to volunteer and be involved in the community could play a very vital part in helping continue the tradition of social mobility and a culture of education by making sure all the students who want to could attend college.

This is somewhat like mentoring and somewhat like tutoring, only a little less of each. For the slacker volunteer, like myself. And the program could expand to include upperclassmen as well. The test phase would be the freshman and only those that can handle their own workload would be eligible to participate.

Another group that could be tapped to help out in this area would be the Americorps volunteers. They are generally tutors and outside-the-box activity leaders in neglected schools; perhaps they could spend a little time (in high schools) helping students with their academic path, as well (if they don't already).