With Welcome Weeks wrapped up, College Possible Washington is ready to go back to school with its new service members!
During a typical year, College Possible’s high school program is delivered in-person during after-school sessions where students meet in small groups, build community with their cohorts, and work on various tasks related to college. This year, we will be implementing a hybrid model, where we will be offer both in-person and virtual modes of coaching.
“Our students and members missed the in-person connection, but our AmeriCorps members were still able to help students meet their goals and succeed.” said Program Director Lisa Garcia-Hanson.
We’ve taken what we’ve learned from the challenges and successes of last year and how the need for greater flexibility better serves our students and the communities we serve.”
The Seattle, Renton and Federal Way school districts have plans to have school campuses open with the inclusion of masks and COVID testing mandates, instead of being completely virtual. That means we’ll be offering after-school sessions in-person (with COVID safety measures in place) for high school juniors and seniors. For students who are not able to join us, we’ll also offer virtual support.
For our college program, we are close to being back to normal in terms of how we deliver our program. Since we’re supporting more than 700 college students at more than 50 institutions, a majority of our college coaching has always been done virtually.
This year, we’ll have AmeriCorps coaches serving in-person at Seattle Central Community College and University of Washington, Bothell due to the high number of College Possible students on both campuses. Having coaches in-person allows them to have a better understanding of campus resources as well as make easier connections with students. These in-person coaches will be following all necessary COVID safety protocols outlined by their schools and counties.
For many of our first-year and returning coaches, this will be an experimental year as schools begin to reopen with the possible chance of returning to remote learning options, depending on the pandemic. But even as challenges arise, the College Possible Washington team is continuing to stay positive and is looks forward to connecting with students.
