Help With College Essays Coming For Philadelphia HS Students
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The school district has rehired 80 counselors so that every high school now has one, full-time, but many students require extra guidance for the demanding college application process. Now, help is on the way.
The college essay: it has to be one of the most anxiety-producing tasks in modern education. Whole businesses have grown up to help with it. But for many Philadelphia public school seniors, paying for help is out of reach and a single counselor serving an entire school won't be able to offer the kind of support many students need.
But Barbara Mattleman, director of Philly Goes to College, the city office that promotes higher education, says she found many people wanted to fill the gap.
"Adults were coming to us saying what could we do to help? So, we thought that we would offer a series of workshops just for high school students that could help them write their college application essay."
Mattleman stresses this does not take the place of counselors but the volunteers have been trained and are available Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through December 14th, except for the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
There are five locations:
-- Lucien Blackwell West Regional Library, 125 S. 52nd St.
-- Joseph Coleman Northwest Regional Library, 68 W. Chelten Ave.
-- Lillian Marrero Library, 601 W. Lehigh Ave.
-- McPherson Square Library, 601 E. Indiana Ave.
-- Greater Olney Library, 5501 N. Fifth St.
