Students and Parents at the After High School Fair

Students from Evergreen's HS3 discuss their college ambitions

Highline's vision is for all students to graduate prepared for college, career, and citizenship. And by "college", we really mean any post-secondary education that leads to a family wage job in the 21st Century, including four year colleges, community colleges, technical colleges, and quality apprenticeship programs. We all know folks who make good money without a college education, but the truth is that those kinds of jobs are increasingly scarce. A high school diploma alone is no longer sufficient for large numbers of students to go on to a make a good wage and contibute to our community.

It wasn't that long ago that Highline didn't have a districtwide college fair. Seven years ago, Julie Burr Spani and district staff put together the first After High School Fair, and the rest is history. This year's AHSF was on the Evergreen Campus, and it featured numerous post-secondary exhibitors and workshops on topics such as writing a good admissions essay and getting financial aid. Many thanks to Barb Wilson for her leadership of the AHSF this year, and to numerous staff who step up to give our students and parents this wonderful opportunity.

Next year's After High School Fair will be at Mt. Rainier High School, and I want to see every middle and high school student there!

I'll tell the rest of the story with pictures...



Ray Zombro kept count at the door. Although I didn't get the final count, I'm sure the total surpassed 800 by the end of the night.



One of the first things students saw was Kim Thomas, our student advancement coordinator. She got the local Round Table to sponsor a raffle.




The financial aid workshop was popular with parents, as you might imagine.



Former superintendent John Welch was there with his daughter Natalie. John is as responsible as anybody for the success of the AHSF over the years.



Students were able to complete a "passport" that had them visit different types of post-secondary programs.



(L to R) New Start staff members Andrea Love, Josh Bellinger, and Bev Mowrer led a group of more than 40 New Start students, most of whom walked together to the event from the Salmon Creek site.



And don't forget the middle schoolers! A large group of middle school students attended the "Middle School Rally" to get fired up about college. Chinook even sent a bus full of students to expand their college awareness.