College Prep

“Clash Man” Becomes a Leader

By on December 2nd, 2014

leadership blogI sometimes wonder if my three years in middle school were harder than my three years in a refugee camp.

On the fashion front, I wore the same shirt to school three times a week and earned the name “Clash Man.”  In 8th grade, I got kicked off my basketball team and my family was forced to move into low-income housing. At my new school, I got my first D in math, and Cs in some of my other classes.

If you would have asked me if I was a leader, I would have laughed. I was trying to survive each day of school and hoping that life would get better.

Life did get better, but not because I got better housing or a new wardrobe. Continue reading


What Went Wrong?

By on November 14th, 2014

Career Research blog
Katie had never imagined she’d be living month to month, in constant fear that she wouldn’t have enough to pay her rent. After all, Katie had a college degree and a job.

When I met Katie, she was 23 years old and working her dream job at a non-profit. She didn’t have any credit card debt. What had gone wrong?

Katie had massive student loans from college, totaling more than $128,000. Katie’s salary was $32,000 and more than $12,000 of that went to pay the debt and interest. Continue reading


Interested in a Head Start on a Lucrative Career?

By on October 17th, 2014

ITDid you know careers in information technology make up more than 75 percent of the fastest growing occupations IN THE WORLD?!? Having the skills needed to be successful in these careers is a critical piece that FLVS is working to address. With the recent release of 21 new courses leading to some of the most in-demand IT skills and nationally-recognized industry credentials, the time to start preparing is now.

In collaboration with uCertify, FLVS has launched 21 Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses that give students a head start in a variety of IT career pathways, including programming, database administration, networking, cybersecurity, and more! Continue reading


Narrow Down Your College Search

By on September 23rd, 2014

college choice
Check out these tips from FLVS Student Erica Nathan on choosing a college! 

Figure out what you want in a college
Do you want to study political science or engineering? Attend a small school or stay close to home? What type of college can you afford? These are just a few questions that you’ll want to consider when starting to narrow down your college search. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can start your search. The ACT has a great list of the many factors to consider. Continue reading


What’s New in Career & Technical Education at FLVS?

By on August 7th, 2014

New CTEIt would likely be easier to list what ISN’T new with FLVS Get Certified: Career and Technical Education Courses! Since you learned about the many benefits of industry certification in my previous posts, our teams have been quite busy increasing the options and opportunities for students to prepare for and earn those certifications.

In July 2014, we added 12 new certification preparation courses – with another eight to follow this fall! That’s a total of 22 new opportunities for students to show colleges and employers that they have the skills needed for success! Continue reading


Researching Career Opportunities

By on July 8th, 2014

career researchHigh school students may be busy researching colleges to attend, but researching a future career and matching career aspirations with the right college is also important.

This post will cover how to research your future career like a pro as a follow-up to my previous post, Researching Colleges like a Pro.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a free online Occupational Handbook. This is a quick and easy site to use to research careers. It’s so easy that this post will be super short!

Continue reading


It’s Summer! Go on a College Field Trip

By on June 20th, 2014

college field trip coverIf you’re a high school student, you probably have a list of activities to do over the summer: hang out with friends, watch movies, or go to the beach. Here’s another suggestion – go check out a college campus! This can be a lot of fun with no strings attached. Your family and friends will probably be excited for the trip suggestion! Even if the college that may be close to your home is not your #1 choice, walking around the campus can give you a sense of what you are and aren’t looking for in a college.

While checking out a college campus, you can also get a feel for its town or city by scoping out the college’s surrounding areas. Perhaps you like two different colleges, but like the location of one over the other. You may notice you would rather live on campus then off campus or that you like a large city over a small town.  Continue reading


Research Colleges like a Pro

By on April 22nd, 2014

No matter where you are on your college exploration path, there is a tool that can help you with your research.

The National Center for Education Statistics offers a free college research site that does exactly what its slogan says: “Find the right college for you.”

Using the College Navigator Search Options on the left-side panel of this helpful website, you can search for information about colleges in multiple ways. This blog post walks you through a few features you might find handy.

Get started by visiting the College Navigator online.

Continue reading


To Certify or Not to Certify

By on March 14th, 2014

CTE 2Since so much emphasis is being placed on kids to accelerate in school, earn college credit while still in high school, and learn more and more, earlier and earlier…one might ask, “Why should I consider getting an industry certification?”

The answer is quite simple: college and career readiness.

Had I been given opportunities to earn a drafting certification during my drafting years back in school (I know this is starting to sound like “I walked to school five miles, uphill both ways…”), my career may very well have taken a different road. I might have become a full-fledged mechanical engineer, instead of the only one in the shop who knew how to operate CAD software and earning the title by default. Continue reading


What Is CTE and Why Should I Care?

By on February 11th, 2014

CTE coverThe Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings at FLVS includes a series of courses aligned to a specific occupational pathway.

CTE courses provide students with the skills, abilities, and attitudes necessary for success in college and careers.

These pathways range from Aquaculture to Web Design and everything in between. Most require multiple courses in sequence for students to develop skills needed for that occupation, but these skills are also valuable for students who continue their education beyond high school because the skills focus on work readiness, collaboration, problem solving, as well as technical experience. CTE, however, doesn’t start or end in high school. Career exploration begins early in elementary school through various career days, selective reading and instructional materials, and through informal education at home and in the community. Middle school often brings students opportunities to develop some technical skills that help further refine career interests. High school allows students to focus on coursework in a given pathway that can lead directly into college programs and/or the workplace. Continue reading