Counseling News

Spring 2022 News Issue VII

Welcome Back

Welcome back! We are so happy to have most of our students and staff back on campus! Please remember that if your student is out for COVID or illness you need to contact the grade level clerks so that we can put this in Aeries. This makes a difference in your student being able to make up missed work if the reason is a legitimate and excusable reason.

Big Thank you to our Grade Level Clerks!

Our Grade Level Clerks are the heart of the counseling center! Thank you for all you do to help support our students, families, the counselors, and of course staff! Make sure to let them know what a wonderful job they are doing!

9th Grade- Class or 2025 Anne Mirzakhanian

10th Grade- Class of 2024 Becky Venegas

11th Grade- Class of 2023 Jenny Constanza

12th Grade- Class of 2024 Maria Salvatierra

Spring Programming

Birmingham Course Catalogue

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Grade Level Counselor Updates

9th Grade

We would like to congratulate our freshmen who made the Silver (3.0-3.59), Gold (3.6-3.9), and Platinum (4.0 and above) Honors lists. We enjoyed celebrating our amazing students and their accomplishments with Feather ceremonies.

We will be going into Freshman Science classes (Biology, H Biology, and H Physics) from February 22 through March 7 to meet with our students to choose their classes for 10th grade. We will be reviewing their graduation status, A-G status, and their Fall semester grades.

Selected students will be participating in student focus groups starting Wednesday, February 2. The groups will be facilitated by our 9th grade counselors and PSW, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Palacios, Mrs. Perez, and Ms. Castillo-Urbina.

10th Grade

The Sophomore Counselors are enjoying celebrating the academic success of our students last semester. Over 400 Sophomores made the honor roll with a semester GPA of over 3.0 (A or B average). Our Grade Level Academy had a recognition lunch for our students that received a 4.0 or better last semester. We are so proud of our students!

The Sophomore Counselors are beginning our Graduation Checks. We are going over each student’s transcript, CSU report, and grad status report. We will be going into the World History classes beginning February 22nd until March 3rd to go over these reports so each student has a clear understanding of their graduation status. Further, we will be scheduling their classes for Junior year. In addition, we will be discussing summer school options. Please make sure you continue to reach out to your Counselor if you have any concerns/questions. We are here to support you academically, socially, and emotionally.

11th Grade

Congratulations to our Amazing Juniors who made Honor roll for the fall semester. To show their achievement, we held a ceremony for all of our 4.0 and above students with feathers and food. There were over 200 students. We also recognized all of our students that received over a 3.0 GPA. We visited classrooms to give certificates and a goodie bag. We are so proud of all of you! Keep up the great work.

Starting in March, the Junior Counselors will be going into History classes to meet with students for fall scheduling. We can’t believe it’s going to be their senior year. We look forward to meeting with them, going over credits, summer school and focusing on college. Such an exciting time! Please, if you have any questions/concerns, don’t ever hesitate to reach out to your student’s counselor. We are always here for anything you need.

Junior Council has teamed up with Mr. Turner to promote the “Big Brother/ Big Sister mentoring program for new Sophomores. A junior (Big brother/ Big Sister) will welcome the sophomore to BCCHS, discuss academic resources, school clubs, sports, etc.

12th Grade

Senior Seminar has started this semester for 4th and 8th period. Our students are getting academic support from our teachers and EduCare partners. Students are meeting in the library and have a place to complete homework assignments or get help in classes they need help with.

Congratulations to all of our 484 senior recipients for their incredible efforts!

We held our Feather Ceremony for our seniors for the following high GPA’s: Silver (3.0-3.59), Gold (3.6-3.99), or Platinum (4.0 and above)!

Our seniors are starting to get their acceptance letters/ emails from colleges, we have also had 13 early grads! We have also had seniors enlisting in the military as well. We are so proud and excited for all these wonderful things happening.

Graduation Check letters will be mailed out at the beginning of February. Look out for a copy in the mail and in your email detailing current credits and graduation and A-G requirements.

Financial aid is the big focus this February! Deadline to submit FAFSA so that students have money to attend college is March 2nd!

Words of Wisdom from our College Counselors Ms. Quiñonez & Ms. Lopez regarding FAFSA:

Although students have until March 2 to submit their FAFSA/CADAA, here are reasons why students should submit their financial aid application this month:

Time to make corrections on the application before the March 2nd deadline, if needed
Gives FAFSA/CADAA plenty of time to process the application
Students receive early notice of Cal Grant Award eligibility. The Cal Grant helps cover tuition cost at a California college.
Students receive financial aid award letter early from colleges.

Link to the FAFSA/CADAA tutorial our Birmingham College Counselors did in October.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OvYxIgfU8xrmCf5qv3HOQbjMHFdC52Yi/view?usp=sharing