Last year I read how a counselor friend of mine, Ginny Maddux at Montgomery Bell Academy, used paper airplanes to explain college admissions to her ninth grade boys. It sounded like a terrific idea, so we tried it with our freshmen this afternoon.
First, each girl wrote the names of all the colleges she could think of on a sheet of paper. Using that same paper, we asked them to make an airplane and then took them outside to see if their planes would take flight. It's a simple and fun exercise, but it offers two very important lesson for ninth graders who are (hopefully) just beginning to think about college.
Lesson #1 - Almost everyone needed help today. While most did not hesitate to ask their friends how to fold the paper, some experimented and came up with their own design. Similarly, whether it's seeking out extra help from your teachers and parents or relying on your college counselor's expertise, students should take advantage of all the assistance that is available to them (and at GPS it is considerable!).
Lesson #2 - Almost none of the airplanes landed where the girls wanted them to land. College admissions is very much like flying a paper airplane. You can consult books, on-line sites, family, friends, alums, newspapers, but none of them can guarantee you will be successful. You may have dreams to attend a certain college or have plans to be an engineer or a nurse, but you could still be denied admission. There are always some things you can't control. With airplanes it might be wind speed, the weight of the paper, or your arm strength, and in college admissions, it could be anything from the ratio of boys to girls, the major you choose, or even what state you are from. What is important to remember is that you can still achieve your goals, but you may have to alter your flight plan, and sometimes the alternate route turns out to be the best one. (If you have any doubts, I have plenty of examples I can share with you.)
For now, we want freshmen to concentrate on being the best student they can be, and remember that there is more than one way to achieve their dreams (or fly their planes). It's okay - even advisable - to ask for help. The rest will take care of itself.
