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Look for highlights from the
2008 Western Regional Forum
in the next issue of Connection. |
| A Note from Western Region VP Al Mijares |
VP Al Mijares
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As I write this, we are approaching our regional forum in beautiful Newport Beach, Calif., Feb. 25-27. We are very excited about the program that our regional council has put together for attendees. Look for full coverage of the forum
in next month’s issue of Connection.
In other news, our Western Regional Office staff has been busy with many other projects in addition to the regional forum. We have delivered the "AP® Report to the Nation" to all 12 states in our region. WRO hosted the College Board’s first Financial Aid Services workshop –“A Primer on Economics for Enrollment Professionals.”
Linda Peckham and Anne Sturtevant came in from
Reston, Va., and Atlanta, Ga., respectively, to offer the presentation to nearly 40 participants, some of whom had never previously attended a College Board event. Participants felt the information they obtained through the workshop could help them more effectively communicate with senior campus administrators who view things from a more economic perspective.
Shelley Arakawa, WRO’s senior manager of higher education services, was invited by University of Washington’s Director of Admission Philip Ballinger to address his undergraduate Honors Colloquium class about the use of standardized testing in admissions. Arakawa and John Flemming, WRO’s senior educational manager of higher education services, will soon accompany Kris Zavoli and Sandy Baum to Washington state to do the Trends in Higher Education presentation for members of the Washington State Legislature and Higher Education
Coordinating Board.
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| Montana Teacher Wins Bob Costas Grant |
Art Rzasa of Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Mont.
Art Rzasa, an English teacher at Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Mont., is the Western Region’s 2008 recipient of one of six College Board Bob Costas Grants for the Teaching of Writing. The grants recognize extraordinary teachers who use innovative methods to inspire their students to write.
Rzasa founded Classroom Without Walls, where students engage in experiential learning. They embark on educational backpacking trips, then research, write, film and produce short documentaries for classroom use in middle school and high school. These projects have included learning how a national park operates from officials who run Yellowstone and performing drills with the Confederate “infantry” at Gettysburg. With this grant, Rzasa plans for his Classroom Without Walls students to produce and present live lessons to young summer school students via a video blog from Wyoming’s Wind River Range. “Writing instruction has never been so easy, so productive or so rewarding,” Rzasa said.
The College Board created the grants in 2006 to support teachers and to thank Bob Costas, the Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and author, for his generous public service work on behalf of the National Commission on Writing. Each winner receives an award of $3,000. Rzasa was honored at the Western Regional Forum on Feb. 26 at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif.
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| Advocacy Training with WACAC |
Kris Zavoli, senior director for state government relations and regional membership for the College Board
College Board staff and the Western Association for College Admission Counseling worked together to provide a two-day training session to help counseling professionals become better advocates for education issues.
“This was the fifth annual legislative action day for WACAC,” said Kris Zavoli, senior director for state government relations and regional membership for the College Board. “We wanted to help them get formal training to be prepared to meet with policymakers and have productive discussions with them.”
The program was part of a pilot project created in response to the recent membership survey, Zavoli said, and may be replicated in other states.
In early February, nearly 50 members of WACAC met with College Board liaisons and professionals from M+R Strategic Services, an advocacy consulting group, in Sacramento. The meeting focused on a few priorities: continuing state support for increasing the number of counselors in public schools; preserving grant money for two- and four-year colleges; and encouraging rigorous curricula for all schools.
On the first day of training, M+R associates talked about making good use of meeting time with policymakers. On the second day, counselors and other participants met with policy officials or their staff.
About two-thirds of the participants worked in college admissions offices; the rest were
public school counselors or independent counselors. Many of the participants were young professionals, Zavoli said, and the conference offered an opportunity to introduce them to the College Board’s work.
The conference and training received extremely positive feedback. Next year it is hoped the groups will have up to 100 participants.
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The 2008 "AP® Report to the Nation" included participation and performance data for each state within the context of its population and racial/ethnic demographics.
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