College and Career Access Center

Summer time for the College and Career Access Center is always prime time for college and career exploration. It’s a time to ensure our younger students, Jackson County graduates, and adults are bringing their career plans to fruition! The summer also allows time for our advising team to focus on special projects as well as reflect upon continuous improvement for the next academic year. In this quarterly newsletter edition, take a moment to check out our collaborative services with the Martin Luther King Center, the YMCA, and Chalet Terrace and Shahan apartments. For this programming, we are thankful for the training our team receives in STEM areas, drones, and Robotics through Jackson Public Schools’ principal, Willie Lewis.

Our team expanded this summer with the support of our IMPACT Advisor interns, who joined in our outreach efforts. We also hired a new full-time advisor, Skye Jarskey. Take a moment to look at our Summer Melt and our Boots on the Ground efforts, along with our special summer projects, which included a deeper dive into data and our first ever Manufacturing Convening. Additionally, our team had an opportunity to explore Northern Michigan University through their Summer Counselor Visit Program. We ended our quarter celebrating our Summer’s accomplishments with our Annual End-of-Summer Picnic.

As we look forward to this upcoming school year, we’re working on career exploration with our 8th-grade and 11th-grade college and manufacturing tours. We’ve hit the ground running in our 13 Connected School districts with Senior 1:1 advising. We are also hosting English as a Second Language classes in collaboration with Jackson Public Schools at Sharp Park Academy!

Finally, take a look at some changes to the FAFSA this year as well as our upcoming events at the Center. Be sure to mark your calendars and join us! Let’s continue as a community to support all Jackson County students and adults, in "Starting Their Futures!"

Over the summer, the CCAC provided fun and engaging programming for kids at the Martin Luther King Center, the Jackson YMCA, and the Jackson Housing Commission. In addition to our college and career curriculum, our advisors led fun activities around the basics of robotics and computer programming, exposing kids to the world of STEM.

This summer, advisors worked diligently to contact recent high school graduates to offer our services to ensure that students were ready to pursue their upcoming Fall plans. We successfully contacted 556 graduates from the Class of 2023. 52% of those graduates are on track to enroll at a 2- or 4-year institution and 18% of those graduates will be entering the workforce.

Our Boots on the Ground initiative allows us to go door-to-door and reach students who are unable to come into the Center to complete important college and career tasks over the summer. This summer, we successfully contacted 38 students through this initiative.

This summer we launched two special projects. The first special project was a Qualitative Data Project, led by our IMPACT Advisors and Operations Coordinator, that analyzed new data that we collected in our 2023 Senior Exit Survey. We posed three open-ended questions to the Class of 2023 to gain qualitative feedback and insight of their thoughts around post-secondary access. Click the button below to view our analysis of the county-wide results to these questions.

The second special project was our first ever Manufacturer's Convening, led by our Community Initiatives Coordinator with assistance from the IMPACT Advisors and hosted by Wardcraft Industries. The purpose of this convening served as an opportunity for the CCAC and its manufacturing partners to come together and discuss best practices, and collaborative wishes as we look to the future of our early awareness, middle school program and skilled trades options in Jackson County.

This summer, our advisors had the opportunity to travel to Northern Michigan University to participate in the NMU Summer Counselor Visit. This 3-day visit allowed for our advisors to gain a first-hand look at NMU's campus and the programs they offer. They also had the opportunity to explore Marquette and participate in fun, team-building activities!

Our team celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of our new school year with our annual picnic in the park! We enjoyed a beautiful summer day, fellowshipping with one another for the last time before we begin supporting the class of 2024 in Starting Their Futures!

We were so happy to have Alex, Collin, and Hilton join us this summer to help with our College Get It Done initiative by reaching out to the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022, Summer Outreach, and special projects!

This summer we welcomed Skye Jarskey to our team as our newest full-time College and Career Advisor. Skye joins us from Marine City, MI and has previously worked as a College Advisor with MCAN. We are so happy to have her on our team, serving the students of Jackson!

Typically, each year the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) opens on October 1st; however this year, the FAFSA is getting some updates, causing the opening date to be sometime in December. While we don't have an official date that the application will be open, we are keeping informed and our advisors are participating in all trainings to prepare for the changes and updates so that we are ready to assist students and families this winter. For more information about the Better FAFSA, visit this link: https://financialaidtoolkit.ed.gov/tk/announcement-detail.jsp?id=better-fafsa-better-future.

Additionally, we are excited that the Michigan Department of Education is offering students a monetary incentive for completing the FAFSA with the FAFSA Completion Challenge Grant. Each district is eligible to receive funds to support students who complete the FAFSA and must apply by October 6th. To learn more, visit this link: https://www.michigan.gov/mde/resources/fafsa-completion-challenge-grant.

Since October of 2019, the College & Career Access Center has been partnering with various entities to provide ESL (English as a Second Language) Classes to adults. The classes were initially offered in conjunction with Lux Languages, who taught English and Spanish at the Center in the evenings. After the pandemic shut down, these in person group classes have not resumed, however, we continue to do referrals to Lux Languages which offers private ESL tutoring.

Starting this year, the CCAC will continue to offer ESL classes during the day with a new partnership at Jackson Public School's Sharp Park Academy to parents of Jackson Public School District students who are in need of English as a second language learning. We are excited for this opportunity and partnership with Jackson Public Schools!

The CCAC is excited to be continuing the Virtual County Workshop series this year. These virtual workshops allow for students and families to participate in our services and complete important college and career planning steps from the comfort of home. Monthly topics include: college and scholarship action plans and applications, FAFSA completion, resume/cover letter construction, and Decision Day planning.

Each workshop is an hour in length and designed to deliver useful resources and detailed information. At the end of each workshop students have the opportunity to ask questions and receive virtual assistance in completing their college or career tasks. Our first workshop of the 2023-24 academic year was held on September 20th and covered Senior Action Planning for college and career options. We look forward to seeing seniors and their families at our next workshop when the topic will be on FAFSA and Financial Aid Information.

This year, the CCAC is hosting their first ever Fun Fall College Application Frenzy event at the Center. Students who attend this event can get expert assistance with their college applications, enjoy a free lunch, and even win some prizes! It also falls during Michigan College Month, which is a state initiative to encourage students to apply to college. During Michigan College Month, some colleges even offer free college applications to further incentivize students to apply!

The CCAC will be hosting two more events throughout the school year that focus on applying for scholarships and completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The CCAC’s College of the Quarter is Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC). Located in downtown Kalamazoo, KVCC was established in 1966. It is a comprehensive, public, two-year college. KVCC is focused on creating an educated workforce skilled to meet the demands of our ever changing economy. Their mission is to “create innovative and equitable opportunities that empower all to learn, grow and thrive.”

KVCC offers its students over 50 certificate and associate degree programs in 60 areas of study. Some of their programs include, business, education, health sciences, and engineering. They also offer industry/trade programs such as culinary and brewing, welding and manufacturing. To ensure their students’ success, KVCC offers academic advising, counseling, tutoring, and apprenticeship and internship support. Aside from academics, KVCC has over 15 clubs and organizations including, art and animation club, brewing club, gaming club, Phi Theta Kappa, and Spanish club. For sports, they offer basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball.

The total cost of attendance for KVCC is dependent on the total number of credit hours that a student is taking. Financial aid is available to students who complete the FAFSA and qualify. KVCC does have scholarships and grants available for which students can apply. To learn more about Kalamazoo Valley Community College, be sure to visit this link: https://www.kvcc.edu/. Remember the CCAC is a FREE service to help with all things college! Be sure to visit us for assistance with your college applications, financial aid, scholarships, and enrollment tasks.

The CCAC is pleased to highlight Come to Your Effin Senses as our local Business of the Quarter. Come to Your Effin Senses is a family-owned candle business that creates exciting candles with amazing scents and snarky names. Owned and operated by Ron and Amy Proffitt, this candle business began during the pandemic. When the holiday season rolled around, they took notice to people wanting gifts for friends and family members and with Ron’s previous experience in the candle industry (nearly 20 years) they decided to make it a family affair and show their kids how to make candles. They started by posting on Facebook Marketplace and before they knew it, they received their first wholesale order. When it came to naming their business, Amy envisioned a “cute” name and branding concept, but her daughter pointed out that it just did not fit their aesthetic, especially since her mom was an avid roller derby girl with the nickname “F-Bomb.” That’s when Come to Your Effin Senses became the name of their business and the concept of snarky candle names came to life. The entire family contributes to coming up with candle names for each of their scents.

Since their business started during the pandemic, Come to Your Effin Senses wanted to create something that was light-hearted and made people laugh. No two days look alike in this candle-making business and it truly takes the whole family to run the business. Amy is the business’s creative mogul and communication point of contact, while Ron is the master pourer, meaning he is busy every day pouring candles and making sure they meet quality standards. Their kids help with candles, heavy lifting, setting up booths for events, and running the store. In addition to running their business they also take time to be present in the community, including networking with the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, attending Michigan Tribe workshops, and meeting with 100 Women Who Care.

When asked about what drives their business, Amy states, “Even though we have bad words and good smells, what we do always goes back to the people. People are first in our business. We care about connecting with our customers, learning about them ,what they think and what they like. We also believe in being a positive force in the community. For us, that means being active in the Chamber of Commerce, supporting fundraisers, sponsoring community events, and lending a helping hand to new entrepreneurs.” For the future, Come to Your Effin Senses has growth on their radar and would love to open another storefront in Michigan. Long-term, they hope to leave a positive legacy and business for their children. Amy’s words of encouragement for others hoping to start a business is “Just Effin go for it. Don’t be scared to try new things, but keep in mind that the juice has to be worth the squeeze. Be kind, be grateful, be humble, be creative, and be unique. You might not always be for everyone, but the people you connect with will be the most rewarding venture.”

Be sure to check out all of the awesome candles and products from Come to Your Effin Senses:

124 S Main Street, Brooklyn, MI 49230

(517) 980-4820

https://effinsenses.com/

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