The checker took the last few items out of my cart and pushed them towards the bagger, who carefully placed them in my bags and asked me if I wanted him to take my groceries to my car. Our local grocery store is one of the few remaining that offers that personal touch, and I always enjoy the time walking out to the car chatting with the high school students they hire. I was getting ready to ask my usual “where do you go to high school and how do you like it” question when the young man preempted me and asked what I had on tap for the rest of the day. I told him I had originally planned to do my Saturday 8-mile run from my house over the 520 bridge, but as I was heading out, I noticed my Shuffle was dead and needed a charge. I explained that music really helped me with my pace, so I plugged it in and decided to head to the grocery store while it charged. He smiled and suggested maybe sometimes I should try what he does and take out my earbuds and just listen to everything around me while running. I said I would give it a try and got in my car.
As I was driving home, I got to thinking about how this generation gets so much flack for being focused on virtual communication, yet values personal interaction more than any before. Here was one more example of someone who saw the power of listening to the world around him and wanted to unplug for a bit. I see it in my work with students all the time, as I am sure you do. Students often want to just spend time talking, sharing ideas and everyday thoughts, and really enjoying being able to connect at a personal level, face to face.
It was a rare and glorious sunny winter day in Seattle, so as I headed out on my run, I opted out of my earbuds. The Cascade and Olympic Mountains and a gleaming Mt. Rainier appeared particularly clear, and I was grateful. Our students continue to remind us that counseling is a two-way street—the more we give each other, the more we learn.
Your Stories
Over the last few months, I have been sharing stories from counselors who use Corsava with their students. Amelia had an interesting comment about the conversations with parents that are inspired by the student’s card sort results. I had a call yesterday with a counselor in Connecticut and he said the same thing; they find tremendous value in bringing parents into the process and are often surprised by the results. Evelyn’s IEC perspective reminded me of the comments I heard when beta-testing Corsava in high schools—students are excited to be in the driver’s seat!
Amelia Johnson—Indian Springs School
Indian Springs is a private day and boarding school in Alabama with a very engaged parent group and an all college-attending culture. Amelia recently sent out the link for Corsava to all of her juniors, as she did last year. In the past, she used a bubble questionnaire for these first meetings, but she much prefers the Corsava report sorted by categories as it is visually more interesting and her students enjoy using the online version. She likes having a central place to keep their preferences and a resource to pull up throughout the year.
The definitions for each card are helpful for her students, and the categories like student resources, extracurricular activities, and educational culture are valuable in her conversations. She sits down with each of her students, pulls up their account, and goes through their report, discussing their preferences along with the results of her own survey. The combination is perfect.
Amelia has lots of individual meetings with her students. She likes that they have to sit down and think about their preferences. It’s just what they need, as opposed to starting with a list of schools and trying to fit themselves into the wrong box. Corsava provides a self-evaluative moment and forces them to think more deeply early on.
During her meeting with parents, Amelia often pulls up their Corsava report if a parent has a different set of priorities than the student. Showing student preferences in a clear report helps parents see that the student has thought through the process more deeply and clarifies why certain colleges they might never have expected are on their list. When she sent out the link this year, she asked students to include their geographic preferences, as she wants to encourage them to think more broadly.
It meant a lot that she wrapped up our call saying that she is very grateful for Corsava.
Evelyn Alexander—Magellan College Counseling
Last month, Evelyn reached out to me and suggested a Facebook Live event, as several counselors were asking about Corsava and sharing their experiences using the cards with their students. Having used Corsava with her students, Evelyn has a great perspective and some fun tips on how to save student preferences on her student management system, so I asked her to join me for the event.
Evelyn invites her students to Corsava using the link through her account but might explore setting them up first and then inviting them through their profile page. We are currently updating and streamlining the invitation process and will provide updates soon, but we will keep these two options available.
When inviting them, she tells her students that the card sort is a way to take a first look at their preferences for their college environment. Most of her students are interested to see how many options there are to explore. But mostly they are excited that this is a part of the process that they can control, while the adults in their lives can enjoy seeing what is important to their child. Like so many counselors, she learns a lot about family dynamics during the card sort!
Watching students go through the card sort is extremely helpful to Evelyn. Seeing them identify their preferences, and especially which ones are their Must Haves, gives her the opportunity to mentally sort through the colleges she’s visited and think about which ones would fit each student. She also has students take a screenshot of their Must Haves and try to find those things in each of the colleges she suggests for them. To Evelyn, this process helps students make the connection that the choices they make about their preferred college environment are more important than the college's name. I completely agree with her comment, and that is why we created the impression step once students have completed a sort. They can go into their My Stuff in their Corsava account, add their colleges, and then provide their impressions and notes to share in real time with their counselor.
Most of the time students ask Evelyn to describe the different majors, or if they choose an academic topic as a Must Have, they ask her if that means they have to major in that subject. She’s had some very interesting conversations with students about what those cards mean, although this occurs a bit less often now after transitioning to the online version because the definitions are provided.
Evelyn prefers doing the card sort one on one, being there with students and watching them as they sort. However, sometimes when she has less time with students, she has them do the sort before they meet, and they discuss the results during her meetings.
Thank you, Evelyn, for helping with the Facebook Live event and sharing your stories.
Please feel free to reach out if you would like me to interview you for a profile. Our users have mentioned that they get lots of good ideas from other counselors!