“Middle schoolers are the right age to have these substantive conversations,” she said. It’s up to counselors, parents, families, and communities to respond to the call, spreading the message that some form of education past high school is vital for all students, Cook said. Jill Cook, assistant director at the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), said it’s no secret that many middle schoolers are ready to hear more about their postsecondary options. Middle school counselors traditionally build on the work of elementary school counselors and pave the way for high school. NOSCA’s Eight Components of College and Career Readiness Counseling Guide states that effective college and career readiness begins early. The best way to shore up that deficit? According to the National Office for School Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA), middle school student education could be the ticket. However, currently, only 42 percent of Americans have earned an associate degree or higher by the age of 25. “Based on that, it was decided that it would be helpful to have someone work with the middle school students.”Ī 2010 report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce showed that through 2018, 63 percent of job openings will require workers to have some postsecondary education. “For a long time, groups had been contacting us, saying, ’We want to bring students,’” said Stouder, program coordinator. Their self-dubbed “small but mighty” office, created in response to a growing number of requests from middle school teachers and counselors to visit the university, hosts around 2,500 middle school students per year.
Welborn and her colleague, Tricia Stouder, are part of a unique outreach team in the Iowa State admission office. Usually, April is three days a week of middle school groups,” said Welborn, middle school counselor for Admissions Early Outreach at Iowa State. Amid the floral backdrop of spring, it’s not uncommon to see Abby Welborn leading a gaggle of 50 eighth graders past Iowa State University’s iconic campanile on central campus.
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