Scott’s Branch Middle-High School has welcomed a graduation coach to its staff who will work with the school’s seventh-graders through their first year of college.
Makeba White who previously served as a victim’s advocate with the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office, has a master’s degree in counseling from Webster University. She is used to counseling people who are going through hardships in their life, and now she will be counseling students on staying on the right track to graduation and beyond.
In October of 2010, Clarendon School District 1 was one of the recipients of a grant through the S.C. Commission of Higher Education and the S.C. Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) that would provide, over a seven-year timeframe, direct services to 24 middle schools throughout South Carolina.
White said that there are three main objectives for the graduation coach: to increase academic performance and preparation for post-secondary education, increase the rate of high school graduation and participation in post-secondary education, and to increase student and family knowledge of post-secondary education options, preparation and financing.
White will follow 63 seventh-graders through their first year of college. She will provide tutoring, mentoring, as well as monitor attendance and grades and provide individual and group counseling. She will also do workshops with parents, as well as assist and motivate children to go to college, and teach them things on how to make themselves more marketable to colleges and how to apply for financial aid.
White will also help students develop their career portfolios. She will focus on college planning, making sure that students are taking the courses needed for them to get into college as well as preparing them for standardized testing. She also will work with them on showing them how to open a bank account and save money.
“My goal is to have one-on-one time with every child, every month, to make sure their grades are up to par as well as sit in during classes with them,” she said.
White said that she would like to give students a variety of options after they graduate from high school.
“I want to show them that post-secondary education is available and that it is important for them to succeed in life,” she said.
White said that she wants to make sure that her students are thinking about college, and staying on track in school with their grades, and using all of the resources out there that are available for them.
