Courtesy of Amy Belstra

Senior Activities Take Place All Week.

Most seniors know and look forward to Decision Day, where they come to school sporting their future college gear, but this year, Ms. Amy Belstra and the CRC will be celebrating college decisions all week. Senior Week will begin Monday, April 20, and will end Friday, April 24 on Decision Day.

Lunch ‘n’ Learns will be held Monday through Wednesday in the Library Classroom during periods 4-6. On Monday, a session called “College 101: Everything you need to know to make freshman year AWESOME” will be held and free Jimmy John’s will be included. On Tuesday, senior girls are invited to a session on college readiness and campus safety with free Chipotle and on Wednesday, senior boys are invited to the same session with free Chipotle as well.

“We really want our students to be aware of campus safety and you can see we’re not afraid to bribe them; we’re offering free food because we feel it’s just that important,” said Ms. Belstra.

On Thursday, a senior picnic on the lawn will be held from periods 4-7, where students can bring their own lunches. Thursday evening, a session held for students and parents, “Letting Go: Preparing for a Smooth Transition to College,” will be held in the Vernon Hills High School Auditorium at 7 p.m..

Friday is Senior Decision Day. To partake in Decision Day festivities, seniors need to take two online surveys on Naviance. The first survey asks students to list the final decisions on the colleges they applied to (accepted, denied, deferred, wait-listed) as well as what the student’s ultimate decision is for college, and the CRC will then send the student’s final transcript to that school. This information is important because it serves as the data for the scattergrams in Naviance, which helps out all students at LHS who will be applying to schools in the near future. The second survey asks for all kinds of information from “why did you choose the college you will be attending?” to “what can the CRC do to be more helpful?”

“They have to do both of those surveys to come into the CRC on Senior Decision Day. Once they’re in here, we have them put their pin on the college maps we have and we take their picture so it’s important that if you have it, wear your college gear that day. There’s snacks, there’s music, and you get your senior t-shirt, so it’s a lot of fun that day,” said Ms. Belstra.

Some students have known their college decision as early as September and October while others are still weighing their last options before making their final choice. The official decision day for colleges is May 1, but the CRC holds this event prior to that day to make sure students have a chance to talk with the CRC if they are struggling with their decision.

“We always see a big portion of our students attending Big Ten colleges,” said Ms. Belstra. However, she added that “it [college decisions] changes from year to year; it cycles through, so I’m really excited by some of the choices students are making this year because they’re going some interesting places.”

Ms. Belstra also said California schools have been popular this year and some students have been applying out of the country to schools in Canada and Scotland. There are also some students attending service academies.

Ms. Belstra and everyone in the CRC is very excited about the week and invited all seniors to come and join.

“This is the seniors’ day to celebrate and proclaim their decision to the whole community. We celebrate everybody,” said Ms. Belstra.