Brian Hagberg
WARREN, Pa. – Warren Area High School will be hosting a “Senior Sprint” event at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22.
The event is open to Warren and Sheffield seniors and will feature discussions about graduation requirements, graduation pathways, college applications, military options, job options, and more.
“The purpose of that night is to go over everything senior,” WAHS Guidance Counselor Lori Hahn said. “Just all of those things that kids don’t usually think about. And they don’t know, because they’ve never had to do it before.”
Beyond just the options available to seniors post-graduation, Hahn said the event will provide information and tips to successfully navigate from high school to the student’s preferred next step.
“We’re gonna talk about job options, interview things, like interview skills, talk about some key points for that, how to order a transcript,” Hahn said. “The whole purpose is just to kind of help the students get a lot of their questions that they might have. Because I found doing this for a couple years, it’s the same questions over and over again. And we just want to help answer those questions all at once.”
Hahn said the evening will also include information regarding how to apply to college using the Common App.
“The Common App has hundreds of schools on it, where you fill out one application, and then you select the schools you want to send it to, and it sends it to them all at once,” Hahn said. “So instead of, for example, for my role, because I have to fill out counselor recommendation forms, I do one essay, and I just hit send and it goes to all of those colleges. I send one transcript and it goes to all of them. So it makes it nice and handy.”
Participants will also have the opportunity to come away with some college swag, thanks to a simple idea Hahn had.
“I emailed every school that our students in the class of 2023 went to, and I told them what we were doing, and I asked if they had swag that we could raffle off,” Hahn said. “So we have all of this stuff to raffle off that night. So students that come will get the chance to get all of this.”
Hahn was blown away by the number of schools that not only responded to the request but sent far more than she was expecting. So much so, that an entire corner of her office was filled with shirts, pennants, backpacks, magnets, and more.
While it will be informative, Hahn said she plans to make the event as fun as possible to help seniors start that final “sprint” to the high school finish line.
“We’re just hoping to make it fun, informative for the students and the parents to help answer the questions and just let them know that that’s what I’m here for,” Hahn said. “I’m here to help them get across that finish line.”
