With students just in school for a month, the TCS guidance office with Mrs. Fatima Mulroy, is full steam ahead in making sure our students and families are on track in taking the necessary steps to prepare them for college.
Twenty-three families participated in the virtual college financial aid workshop we offered through Thrivent on Thursday, October 1. Mr. William Leach, a Thrivent financial advisor who specializes in college planning, conducted a 45 minute presentation on practical pathways to pursue in order to pay for a student’s college education. He included valuable information on what the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form is and how to fill it out to receive the best financial aid package possible. Parents who attended were very appreciative of his clear, informative presentation filled with personal and practical examples. Because of Thrivent’s partnership with Timothy Christian School, Mr. Leach is willing to give three free private consultation sessions to any Timothy family who would like to discuss college planning with him further. You may contact Mrs. Mulroy if you are interested in his services.
For the first time ever on October 3, 2020, Timothy Christian School became
an SAT testing site. Thirteen of our twenty-nine seniors took advantage of taking the SATs on their “home court” with teachers and classrooms that were familiar to them. As a school, we were motivated to explore how to host the SATs when we heard from our senior families about how difficult it was to find a place to take the test because of the numerous cancellations due to the Corona virus. Once granted permission to become a testing center, Mrs. Mulroy worked hard to make sure our students had the opportunity to take the SAT test at our school. The high stakes SAT test can be stressful enough without adding the additional pressure of an unfamiliar environment or concern about last minute test cancellation. Overall, we proctored the test for 75 local students. The day was a huge success, especially for our first time as a testing site. We look forward to hosting the SATs again in May, 2021 so our juniors can also take their SATs at Timothy.
As we have done in the past, PSAT testing for all of our sophomore and juniors will take place on Wednesday, October 14. This allows our students to practice for the SAT test. Juniors are eligible for the National Merit Scholarship based on their PSAT scores. We are very proud that senior Zachary Lihn has become a National Merit Semi-finalist based on his PSAT scores from last year. He is currently going through the evaluation process to see if he will advance to become a National Merit Finalist. We are looking forward to seeing who might become our next National Merit Scholars from the junior class.
By the first week in October, Mrs. Mulroy finished meeting individually with each senior to go over their goals for after high school and to make sure they are on the right path to achieving those goals. She will now make her way through the high school getting to know our students so she can best help them make good choices academically based on their future plans. We are excited to be rolling out Scoir which is a college guidance management system to better help our high school students with the college preparation process. Starting in the freshman year, students will be able to set goals for college and see themselves make progress toward achieving those goals.