Lake View High School aims for higher education

Class officers and guidance counselors at Lake View High School want seniors to get college applications completed and mailed by the early deadline of Nov. 15 as part of the school’s efforts to increase the number of graduating seniors who attend college.

Only 53 percent of Lake View’s graduating seniors have gone on to attend college in the last three years, according to Chicago Public Schools. Although this number is slightly higher than the overall district, at 46 percent, Lake View students and administrators want that percentage to rise.

Senior class president Venessa Postavo and vice president Marilyn Lopez, as well as the class secretary and treasurer, attended the local school council meeting Oct. 16 to discuss their ideas to encourage their fellow seniors to apply to college.

“We want to be involved in everything this year,” said Postavo. “We have a lot of ideas to get students motivated.”

Lopez said many students do not have Internet access at home and proposed that the school budget money to keep the computer labs open on Saturday, an idea that Principal Scott Feaman said he was very excited about.

“We are especially interested in keeping the computer lab open,” said Feaman.

The class officers also suggested having guidance counselor Tasha Young available during the Saturday lab hours to answer questions regarding the application process. The lab is open during the school week and will be open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays.

The school is urging its 278 seniors to apply to five different colleges – two private schools, two public schools and a community college. Students can send out five copies of their transcripts before being charged. At the very least, seniors must apply to a community college to keep an opportunity available, said Young.

At last month’s meeting, the class officers proposed an application competition between the senior class divisions, groups of seniors determined by their homeroom class. Hoping incentives would encourage seniors to apply even more, they suggested a prize – dressing out of uniform for a day – for the division whose entire group reached the school’s goal of submitting five college applications.

State school admission officers have also come to the school to speak with seniors and assist with the application process. Representatives from the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University have met with seniors and passed out applications to interested students.

Approximately 81 percent of the students who attend Lake View come from low-income families, defined as a family that makes less than $27,000 a year, so seniors often worry about the cost of college. Young helps students focus on the schools they want to attend and not the tuition prices.

“We want them to apply without thinking about costs,” said Young, the guidance counselor. “They never know what the money situation looks like, and they can get scholarships.”

Working with what she considers a “really good group of seniors,” Young said she will remain involved and available for seniors who have questions about college applications.