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Beyond the Court: How Title IX Changed My Life

Three!!! Swoooosh!” The crowd roared. The game was on the line, and all those hours practicing three-pointers finally paid off. That moment wasn’t just about scoring points. It was about the confidence, discipline, and determination that basketball gave me.

Basketball has always been more than a game for me. It was a pathway to education, leadership, and opportunity. As a basketball player, I worked hard on and off the court, and that dedication paid off. With the guidance of incredible coaches, a former El Paso Parks and Recreation Director,  and a dad who pushed me to be my best, I helped my high school team win a state basketball championship and earned a spot on the Texas All-State team. Those moments weren’t just victories on the court, they led to doors I never imagined would open.

One of the biggest doors opened by basketball was the chance to go to college. My talent and hard work earned me a scholarship, and that scholarship changed the trajectory of my life. It allowed me to be the first in my family to pursue higher education, receive a college degree, and step into leadership roles that shaped who I am today. Basketball gave me confidence.  It was the kind of confidence that carried into the classroom and eventually onto national committees where I now advocate for students.

But none of this would have been possible without Title IX. Before its passage in 1972, opportunities for women athletes were limited, and the idea of receiving a scholarship to play basketball would have been out of reach for so many. Title IX changed that by ensuring that women had equal access to athletic programs and resources. For me, it meant that my time in the gym, my passion for the game, and my leadership on the court were valued and not dismissed because of my gender.

We see the ripple effects of Title IX today. Women’s basketball is drawing record-breaking crowds and television audiences, with players like Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Lonescu, and A’ja Wilson inspiring a new generation. The WNBA’s growth and the visibility of women athletes remind us that progress in women’s sports didn’t happen by accident. It happened because protections like Title IX leveled the playing field.

Today, we cannot take those protections for granted. Title IX isn’t just about athletics. It’s about fairness, access, and the belief that each and every student, regardless of gender, deserves the same chance to succeed. My story is just one example of the doors that open when those protections are enforced.

Action Steps You Can Take:

1. Show Up & Support

  • Attend women’s sports games:  whether it’s local high school teams, college matchups, or professional games, NCAA/NAIA games, filling the stands sends a powerful message.
  • Watch women’s sports broadcasts/streams: higher viewership drives more media coverage and sponsorships.

2. Advocate for Equity

  • Support Title IX enforcement: stay informed on proposed changes to Title IX, and advocate against rollbacks that could reduce opportunities for women.
  • Contact legislators to protect and expand funding for girls’ and women’s athletics.

3. Invest in Women Athletes

  • Buy merchandise & tickets for women’s teams.
  • Follow women athletes on social media: boosting their visibility.

4. Inspire the Next Generation

  • Share articles, highlights, and stories that showcase women’s athletic excellence.
  • Highlight women athletes as role models in classrooms and community spaces.

5. Use Your Voice

  • Challenge stereotypes when you hear people downplay women’s sports.
  • Celebrate achievements of women athletes with the same enthusiasm given to men’s sports.

As debates about education and equity continue, we must remember that policies like Title IX don’t just live in history books. They live in the lives of students who, like me, found their way to college and beyond because someone believed women’s opportunities mattered. Protecting Title IX means protecting the next generation of leaders, scholars, and athletes who are ready to step up and say: Together, we can ensure each and every student hears the message I once needed to hear: “¡Sí Se Puede.” Yes we can!

Priscilla Grijalva is a seasoned high school counselor in California. She has 21 years of experience at the middle, high school, and university levels. With a passion for equity, she has served on a national school counseling board, her district equity team, and various national committees to have a voice to support each and every student.  Priscilla has presented at various state and national conferences and has been a main stage speaker at the National Association for College Admissions Counseling Conference, as well as a keynote speaker at the University of Redlands School Counselors of Color Commencement Ceremony. She was honored as a Distinguished Educator by the U.S. Air Force, was named the 2022 National Life Changer of the Year, the 2023 California Woman of the Year, and a 2025 Bezos Educator Scholar. 

The Rewards and Realities of Helping Others for a Living

In a perfect world, we could all work jobs centered around helping others. Of course, that’s not possible, but the many people who have made helping others their mission are cherished by many. Therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, and people running nonprofit organizations do exactly that.

Helping others for a living is quite rewarding, but it also comes with some challenges you won’t face in other professions. For example, forensic social workers often spend time with and counsel people going through the worst times of their lives. The same can be said for addiction counselors and trauma therapists who help people dealing with harsh realities.

While this can be tough, it pays off with dividends when you see how people can heal and process their troubles. Those are just a few examples of the many jobs built around helping others and how they pay off. Follow along as we highlight the rewards and realities of helping others for a living.

Helping Others is Rewarding in Many Invaluable Ways

“What can I do with my psychology degree?” is a question countless students and young psychologists have asked themselves. Whether you become a social worker, counselor, or psychologist, you can use your degree to change people’s lives. This doesn’t happen overnight, but using your empathy and hard-earned skills to help others can create a snowball effect.

You will help each person you work with, and in turn, you’ll help yourself become better at your craft. Helping others for a living takes a lot of hard work and discipline, but it pays off in many ways, such as:

1. Grow Continually

Helping others daily can ultimately help you grow in ways you may not otherwise. You most likely already have a lot of empathy and understanding if your work is built around helping others. However, this innate empathy and understanding will only grow stronger if you foster it daily.

This is especially true when you must face situations, cases, and clients that challenge your foundation. For example, a psychologist may work with a client who is unruly, stubborn, and seemingly ungrateful. They need your help, but they may not make your job any easier.

Figuring out how to help someone like that can be challenging, but cracking the case can make you a better psychologist. You can apply that scenario to most professional fields centered around helping others. The more you help others, the more you grow and become better at your job.

2. Enjoy a Sense of Purpose

Most people work simply because they have to, which sometimes entails working jobs that aren’t too fulfilling. That’s perfectly fine, as everyone must work, eat, and pay the bills. However, working in psychology and helping others comes with a strong and fulfilling sense of purpose.

Your job is clearly defined, so you go to work each day knowing you’re helping others. Because of that, you can avoid some of the pitfalls of working a job you aren’t passionate about. Of course, working as a therapist, psychiatrist, or social worker involves some harsh realities, which can be tough.

That said, navigating such harsh topics is much easier when you feel fulfilled and know you’re helping others. Helping patients or clients can make dealing with these realities much easier and remind you that your work is important.

3. Become Resilient

Helping others is rewarding, but it can take a toll on your mental health. It’s easy to neglect self-care when helping others but finding a balance can make you resilient and strong. Throughout your career, you naturally develop a thick skin, but that doesn’t always come with resilience.

After all, you can have a thick skin while still holding on to some negativity that sticks with you. That doesn’t have to be the case, however, especially if you set healthy boundaries. Separating work life from home life ensures you can help others without taking stress home.

The more you practice healthy boundaries and self-care, the more resilient you become. Confiding in peers, friends, and your own therapist can also make this much easier.

4. Gain Recognition

Most people don’t set out to help others for a living solely for the clout that comes with it. After all, you can get more clout and earn more money in other lines of work. However, you can enjoy some hard-earned recognition if you excel while helping others professionally.

Whether you’re a licensed social worker or a therapist, you’ll likely go through several phases in your career. Eventually, you can move up the ladder, get recognition, and move into more esteemed roles in your field. This takes time, but garnering a strong reputation for something as positive as helping others is worth every second.

Having your clients and peers recognize you for being good at something so positive is quite rewarding. Sure, it isn’t always easy, and the nature of the work can take a toll on you. However, earning respect for how well you’ve helped people versus how much money you’ve made for a company is invaluable.

5. See the Effect You Have on Others

Finally, the biggest benefit of helping others for a living is that you get to see the effect you have on others. Many people don’t necessarily get to see how their hard work pays off. Therapists and social workers get to witness gradual changes in their clients, and that’s rewarding.

Such change is also contagious, and helping your clients may also help those around them. You may not see that part, but you’ll at least know you played a role in helping improve someone’s life.

The Power of Helping Others is Unparalleled

Choosing a career centered around helping others is a big decision. As long as you manage your own mental and physical health, you can avoid many of the pitfalls that come with such a line of work. Separating work from home life can help ensure the positives outweigh the negatives.

Marijuana is never safe for developing brains

With the rise of countercultural movements in the ‘60s and ‘70s, pot became a symbol of rebellion, peace and freedom. 

But that was then, and this is now. Pot is no longer the benign high. Instead, I’ve seen in my practice an alarming increase in the number of teens and young adults who slip into some form of mental illness, from depression, paranoia and anxiety to permanent psychosis, associated with their use of cannabis. Some will recover. Some never will.

The National Institutes of Health, as well as Yale, Harvard and Johns Hopkins have all studied the effect of marijuana toxicity on the developing brain. The brain is in a developmental state until the age of 26 or 27, making teenagers and young adults, between the ages of 15 and 30, particularly vulnerable.

“Substance use and addictive behaviors really begin for the majority of people during adolescence, which is a period of time where the brain is still maturing and is more sensitive to the effects of exposure to drugs,” says Christopher Hammond, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins who works with adolescents and young adults.

Are all young people affected like this? Not necessarily. Brains are different, but for someone with a predisposition toward a mood or personality disorder, cannabis can push them over the edge into a mental illness. And how does a parent know their child’s unique brain chemistry?

I’ve watched as parents, remembering the good old days, let their children experiment with cannabis in an effort to modify their behavior. They believe it will calm them down, decrease threatening behavior and acting out. It might, in the short term. But there could be long-term damage.

Kids, meanwhile, may be self-medicating for depression or anxiety by smoking, vaping or ingesting cannabis in the form of gummies. What are some of the dangerous outcomes?

Amotivational syndrome has been recognized as a side effect of cannabis for about 20 years. This is the lack of motivation to do anything you need to do to live a normal life, including holding a job or doing school work.

Even worse, young people could end up with depression so severe that it lands them in bed, unable to function. Delusions and suicide ideation, taking the form of statements such as “I wish I were dead,” may emerge as well.

Unfortunately, insurance companies don’t consider cannabis a serious addiction problem, so they don’t pay for treatment without a co-occurring serious mental illness or history of hospitalization for toxicity or withdrawal.

Why is today’s pot so dangerous?

In the ‘70s pot was organic. You’d buy a bag of marijuana grown on someone’s farm, which was sold to a dealer. The amount of THC – the ingredient in cannabis that produces the high – was approximately 3 percent.

Now, you can go to a dispensary and get up to 95 percent THC, with an average of 40 to 50 percent. Gummies might have 5 to 10 percent THC in each one, and it’s very easy to overdose on them because they take a while to produce an effect, and folks tend to overindulge before the effect takes hold.

In addition, street pot is frequently laced with other chemicals, such as fentanyl, to make the high stronger and better. People go to the ER thinking they have marijuana toxicity, but it turns out they have OD’d on something else.

If you suspect one of your students may be affected by pot, have a conversation with them about cannabis and their developing brain – the prefrontal cortex that will someday allow them to go to college, get a job and have the life they deserve. Tell them if there’s a family history of addictive behavior or mental illness. Prepare them for the day in high school when they start getting pressured to share a joint.

If one of your students reeks of pot or exhibit concerning behaviors, take it seriously. Remember, open conversation and your concern may save a kid’s life.

Bonnie Lane, M.S., is principal consultant with Family Support Services specializing in supporting families whose loved ones suffer from severe mental illness or substance addiction. Contact her at 847-651-1554 or refer families to bonnielane@thefamilysupportservices.com.

AI and College Essays: Insights from Top Schools

Everywhere I go, folks ask me about AI and college essays. 

  • Should we be worried?
  • Should we ignore it?
  • Should we learn to use it?
  • Should we teach our students to use it?

As with all things college-essay-related, we’re keeping our eyes open, staying on top of the news, the rumors, and the vaguely true.

Today I wanted to share a few resources from schools and organizations that have something to say about this issue.

This is not a comprehensive list, by any means. We expect more schools to develop policies in the coming years. 

In the meantime, remember that an ethical essay coaching process is built upon three important principles:

  1. Theme matters more than topic
  2. Reviewing is simple if you know what to look for
  3. Every exercise, meeting and email has a purpose

The Wow Method follows these principles, and you can too. If you don’t already have our ten steps, download a copy today. 

Susan Knoppow is CEO of Wow Writing Workshop. She can be reached at susan@wowwritingworkshop.com

Beyond 529s: How your students’ grandparents can help pay for college

Today’s Baby Boomers hold over half of total U.S. household wealth, while their kids hold a much smaller portion, despite being bigger in population, according to a new study by New York University economists. Those 65 and older have benefitted from long-term home ownership, booming stock markets and steady jobs with 401(k)s to build their golden nests.

Their children, meanwhile, have struggled with student debt, soaring housing prices, less reliable jobs and fewer pensions.

A wealth transfer is coming eventually, and for many grandparents, that means helping to pay their grandchildren’s college expenses. A 2024 study found that 53% of grandparents are saving for a grandchild’s education, and the 529 college savings account is the go-to vehicle.

There are some benefits to this strategy. The money grows tax-free, and if it’s withdrawn for qualified educational expenses (tuition, room and board, etc.), there are no tax consequences. Contributions are after-tax, but many states offer a deduction or tax credit for their in-state plans. Withdrawals are subject to federal gift tax exclusion, currently $19,000 for an individual or $38,000 for couples.

Under a recent change in the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), funds supplied by a grandparent through a 529 are not reported as student income, so the grandchild’s eligibility for federal aid is not impacted.

However, about 250 colleges and universities use the CSS Profile to award institutional aid. The application provides a much more detailed financial picture, and if the student is applying to one of these schools, 529 contributions from a grandparent are added back in.

Also, most 529 plans offer limited investment options, mainly in mutual funds. This is why many investment advisers recommend 529 plans – because they want to encourage stock market investment. Very few mutual fund managers, though, beat the returns of the S&P 500. (This is why it’s important to work with a fiduciary, who is compensated by clients, not commissions.)

Here are two other strategies for grandparents looking to fund some of their grandchild’s college expenses.

Cash value life insurance policy

A permanent life insurance policy, universal or whole life, that accumulates cash can be a valuable tool for paying college expenses. You are using the cash value as a living benefit, which reduces the death benefit.

Overfunding a cash value life insurance policy involves paying more than the required premium to build a substantial cash value. You can take a loan from the insurance policy,  similar to taking a loan from your 401(k), and use the funds to help your grandchild pay for college. When you pay back the loan, you are paying yourself the interest.

This source of funding is not reported on the FAFSA or the CSS Profile, unless the student puts it in their own savings account. One strategy is for the grandparent to pay tuition directly to the college, which wouldn’t be subject to the federal gift tax exclusion. Depending on the college, however, it could affect aid eligibility, so parents and grandparents need to be on the same page.

It’s important to work with a financial professional to make sure a cash value life insurance policy is appropriate to your circumstances and is structured correctly to avoid tax consequences.

Tax-deferred fixed annuity

Tax-deferred annuities are the insurance industry’s alternative to the banking industry’s certificate of deposit (CD). You deposit a lump sum with an insurance company, which then accumulates tax-deferred interest at a fixed rate and pays out a steady stream of income. The interest is taxed when it’s withdrawn, much like any type of taxable account such as CD, money market or brokerage acct.

The advantages of annuities are that you can time distributions to coincide with tuition payments and the money is protected from market volatility.

There are many different types of annuities based on your specific goals. For example, there are annuities geared specifically to college-bound families that allow withdrawals without any surrender fees. This is why you would want to work with a Certified College Planning Specialist versed in annuities for college, retirement or income.

Again, a grandparent can make tuition payments directly to the school rather than giving the money to the student, which would have be reported.

There’s no reason to put all of your college-funding eggs in one basket. Rather, consider a mix of strategies as you think about putting your grandchildren, or future grandchildren, through college.

Brian Safdari, who founded College Planning Experts in 2004, is a Certified College Planning Specialist™. He and his team have assisted more than 7,500 students nationwide on their college journey using their exclusive My College Fit System and financial planning tools. For more information, call 818-201-4847 or visit collegeplanningexperts.com.

New Scholarship Available – 1 for 2 Education Foundation Scholarship

The 1 for 2 Education Foundation is seeking highly motivated applicants of accredited U.S. four-year
colleges and universities.


For the 2025 academic year the Foundation selected a diverse group of seven scholars who attended
both public and private high schools from four states. Grants of up to $20,000 per academic year were
made to attend both public and private colleges and universities across the U.S.


For the 2026 academic year the Foundation intends to award at least two merit-based scholarships. The
size of the individual grants is determined on the basis of tuition remaining after considering all other
forms of tuition assistance obtained by the scholar.


Requirements to Apply:
● An up to date official transcript from current school
● Make the Pledge to support the mission of the Foundation
● All required application questions must be answered and fields completed
● Applicants must be living in the United States but are not required to be a U.S. citizen or permanent
resident
● The college or university must be in the United States
● GPA must be at least 3.7 unweighted, 4.0 weighted
● Application Deadline: February 1, 2026


The Foundation considers the applicant’s academic record, leadership, community service activities, and
letters of recommendation. Applicants are also assessed on the alignment of their values with the
Foundation’s values as it relates to their intention to fulfill their Pledge to the Foundation.


While receiving a scholarship from the Foundation, scholars are required to attend the Foundation’s
annual scholar retreat. During this event, scholars will have a chance to meet other scholars, graduates,
and advisory board members. They will also participate in personal development and learning sessions
aimed at preparing them for academic, career, and life goals. The 2026 scholar retreat is planned for
July 30 – August 3, 2026, in Michigan. All reasonable costs to attend the scholar retreat are covered by
the Foundation.


Applicants are required to make the following pledge:


In consideration of the 1 for 2 Education Foundation (“the Foundation”) making this scholarship grant I
pledge to support the mission of the Foundation by:


a) participating in the annual scholar retreat while receiving my scholarship,
b) supporting my fellow Foundation Scholars’ academic and career goals during my lifetime, and
c) paying for a comparable scholarship grant for two persons, who are not related to me by
blood, adoption, or marriage, during my lifetime.


Application link: Apply Now – 1 For 2 Education Foundation – https://www.1for2edu.com/scholarship

AI Readiness Gap: 97% of Parents Expect Kids to Reskill — 36% Believe Schools Aren’t Preparing Them

Report shows nearly all parents worried AI will disrupt their child’s career; 71% plan to be very involved in career choices.

Zety®, a leading resume templates service, recently surveyed more than 900 U.S. parents of children ages 12–24 for itsAI Readiness Gap: 2025 Parent Outlook Report. The data found nearly all parents are growing anxious about how AI will affect their children’s professional lives, with 97% fearing their child’s career could be disrupted or replaced within the next decade.

At the same time, one in three parents (36%) say school isn’t preparing students for AI-era jobs. With that landscape, 71% of parents say they are very involved, or plan to be, in their child’s career choices.

Key Findings

  • Doubts about education: One in three parents (36%) say school isn’t preparing students for AI-era jobs.
  • Reskilling is inevitable: The majority (97%) believe AI will force their child to reskill multiple times during their career.
  • Job uncertainty: 54% of parents are very worried their child will have fewer career opportunities than their generation.
  • Technical skills are vital: Parents believe skills like coding, AI, and data analysis are most critical for their child’s career.
  • Renewed interest in the skilled trades: 29% of parents report their child is most interested in trade work, followed by corporate or office jobs (28%).

Parental Anxiety Rises Over AI and Jobs

Parents are growing anxious about how AI will affect their children’s professional lives. 97% worry their child’s career could be disrupted or replaced by AI within the next decade, highlighting concerns about generational downturn, school readiness, and parental guidance:

  • 54% of parents are very worried their child will have fewer career opportunities than their generation.
  • One in three parents (36%) say school isn’t preparing students for AI-era jobs.
  • 71% of parents are—or plan to be—very involved in their child’s career choices, providing active guidance.

Parents’ Top Career Concerns for Their Kids

AI’s impact is causing parents to closely monitor potential obstacles their children may encounter in their careers. Their biggest concerns include:

  • Fewer job openings overall – 59%
  • Jobs becoming unstable or short-term – 57%
  • Low pay or reduced earning potential – 56%
  • Needing to constantly retrain/reskill – 34%
  • Struggling to adapt to new tools and technologies – 20%

Kids’ Career Interests in an AI World

As AI transforms work, parents reveal which careers their children are most interested in today:

  • Skilled trades (electrician, plumber, etc.) – 29%
  • Corporate or office jobs – 28%
  • Government or public service jobs – 23%
  • Entrepreneurship or freelance work – 10%
  • Creative or artistic careers (e.g., design, writing, performing arts) – 8%
  • Social media or digital content creation – 2%

What Parents See as Essential Skills

Nearly all parents (97%) believe their child will need to reskill multiple times during their career because of AI, and 96% worry they may struggle to adapt to these types of rapid changes in the job market. 

To prepare their children for an AI-driven workforce, parents say the following skills will be most critical for success:

  • Technical skills (coding, AI, data analysis) – 52%
  • Soft skills (communication, adaptability, creativity) – 33%
  • Entrepreneurial skills (innovation, risk-taking) – 12%
  • Critical thinking and problem-solving – 3%

For detailed insights on the Parent Outlook Report access the full study at zety.com/blog/ai-readiness-gap-parent-outlook

AI and Student Services

While AI is being used and considered for many services, it is ideal to take a step back first and review your current office operations. Are you a high school counselor with a backlog of recommendation letter requests? Is your current process for sending out local scholarship information working? Does the student transcript request system for college applications work effectively?  College staff procedures could also be involved. Do you have a back log of transfer student academic records that need to be reviewed? If so, what plans are being considered to correct this situation? Are admission office applicants waiting a long time for a status update? Is this impacting your freshman class yield rate? How are student customer service experiences in your individual student service offices and/or your one stop shop? Do enhancements need to be made? This type of assessment needs to be completed before AI is added to your school’s process. Why? AI will not fix operational issues which are a separate issue. When considering AI options, below are some things to keep in mind.

Choosing a business vendor is a serious matter. In my opinion, the dynamics are similar to a close personal friendship or marriage. Trust and dependability are involved. A technology decision can make or break an organization. I currently view technology choices as two-year decisions that may last as long as five years. This type of decision naturally leads to requesting input from numerous staff members.

Here are the three types of questions involved when you are considering a technology decision: 

1. Technology vendor questions
2. General business vendor questions
3. Political questions to privately consider


In some industries, the number of major and minor companies is constantly changing. As a manager, the decisions you make can drastically affect the existence of other companies.

If you are attempting to choose a technology vendor, I would consider the following:

  • What kind of background do the people have who are heading up the new company?
  • Can this new product or service affect the security of my position or industry?
  • If so, why has the new product or service not already had an impact?
  • How long will it take for the new idea to affect my position, organization and/or industry?
  • Does the idea or product make sense but lack industry support?
  • If it makes sense, will people involved with the new idea or product end up being leaders in the industry?
  • How long would it be before the new idea or product would be replaced?
  • Is my industry ready to accept the new idea or product?

Below is a list of general questions you may want to ask a potential business vendor:

  • May we have a brief organizational overview?
  • What is your Customer Service approach for your current business partners?
  • Do you have any plans to increase staffing in your Customer Service department?
  • Are Satisfaction surveys conducted with your current business partners?
  • What successes did your organization experience during the past fiscal year?
  • What challenges do you expect to face in the upcoming fiscal year?
  • Can you update us on your goals for the upcoming fiscal year?
  • For the upcoming fiscal year, are any new services or products available?
  • What other companies, similar in size and scope, do you currently serve?
  • Can we call a few of your current customers, to discuss your products and services?

Again, selecting a business vendor is serious business. A lot of agreements are easy to get involved in and hard to dissolve.


The last set of questions should be privately considered before you make a final decision:

  • Is a potential conflict of interest involved?
  • Does the parent company of the potential vendor have a vested interest in me also using their other products?
  • If so, are their other products up to the standards my organization requires?
  • Does the potential business vendor have political connections involving upper administration in my organization?
  • If so, will I truly be allowed to make the decision?
  • Date October 28, 2025
  • Author Kenneth McGee, Financial Aid and Enrollment Management Consultant

Which “Optional” Essays are Really Optional?

Students are not always sure which “optional” essays are truly optional. Use Wow coach
Joe Kane’s insight to guide you and your students. Joe has been with Wow since 2013. He
also runs a youth writing program in Nashville, and is a wonder with any type of student. 

At the end of a recent brainstorm session, one of my students said he was concerned that
his application didn’t demonstrate enough hardship. After a couple follow up questions, I
discovered that he had read through the Common App sections before our meeting, and the
Additional Information section caught his attention. Reading the long list of challenging
circumstances gave him the impression that living through hardship was a prerequisite for a
strong application, but he knew that none of the listed circumstances applied to him. 


Even though my student saw that the Additional Information section was labeled “optional,”
he didn’t trust it. And with good reason. There are plenty of supplemental essays and
additional materials that are marked “optional” but are really a requirement if students what
to be competitive. Students notice that. They also notice when adults, who are trying to
maintain a positive tone, get a little cagey when asked if a part of the application is truly
optional. 
 
While discussing the Additional Information section with my concerned student, I was
intentionally direct. I acknowledged that some essays marked “optional” are actually
required, while others are perfectly fine to leave blank. I also promised that I would always
tell him the difference right away. I’d never leave him guessing. 
 
For the hardship question, I told him that if he didn’t immediately think of an idea while
reading the prompt, that’s probably a sign that the question isn’t for him. Students who have
experienced hardship that significantly impacted their high school experience generally don’t need to dig for a story. It’s already on their mind. When he realized that he could leave that section blank, he heaved a big sigh of relief.


Optional? In this case, yes.
 
In others, maybe…
 
Trust yourself and trust the process. You can download a free copy of the ten-step Wow
Method here: https://wowwritingworkshop.com/wow-method-free-download/

Susan Knoppow is CEO of Wow Writing Workshop. She can be reached at
susan@wowwritingworkshop.com

Have You Considered Working with Families Independently? A Conversation with Four Former School-Based Counselors Who Made the Transition to IEC – Free Webinar

Have you ever thought about pursuing college counseling on a private basis, either as a side hustle, working for a company, or starting your own company? Do you wonder about the pros, cons, practical challenges, and great rewards of this work? If so, please join a candid (and unrecorded) conversation with four IECs who were all school-based college counselors before transitioning to owning their own business. Yvonne Espinoza, CEP, Jamie Kirby, Hilary Lehn, M.Ed., and Chris Teare, CEP, will offer their thoughts on how they approach this work through the lens of former school-based counselors, and answer the questions you submit in advance or bring with you to the session.

*Please note: This webinar registration is limited to current school-based counselors to allow space for their participation. Also, the information shared during registration is only for presenters to understand our audience. Registrants will not be added to any marketing materials, nor will the information be shared with any other parties.

Dec 3, 2025 1:00 PM Central Time

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/5DCUFjoHS6eS1K5cj–PdQ?fbclid=IwZnRzaANl_xFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHg7RjmvNMOM6TGqke0nKgVXVKPq1wcZBfz6BPksI1ayqFnpH0IZruiI6WFHH_aem__umHgoUwiAhB2F66QxRVhA#/registration

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