Party Celebrates UC, Early-Decision Application Deadline
December 7, 2017
Seniors enjoyed holiday treats and tunes in the College and Career Center Friday, December 4, during Academy period.
Usually decorated with rainbow-wheels of college penants, the college and career center was decked with evergreen arrangements and tinsel. Students were treated to a hot chocolate bar, donuts, coffeecake, and fruit salad, courtesy of career center coordinator Joan Batcheller.
The modern Christmas classic Home Alone was also projected on the wall and, in what senior Elena Koshkin called “an original choice,” Christmas “trap” music, a holiday take on the genre defined as a cocktail of hip-hop, electric dance, and dub music, blared from the ceiling speakers.
The event, which Batcheller began planning 2 months ago, is the 1st of it’s kind at Campolindo. “A woman who used to work at Acalanes, she had four pizza parties during the year for her seniors, so I thought that was a great idea,” said Batcheller.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Koshkin. “It was a really nice thing for the College and Career Center to do for the seniors who have been stressed about admissions recently.”
“I finished my applications just recently. Just the day or two nights before the party itself, so I felt like I belonged there,” said senior Alex Kolm.
“Free food is always a plus for us teenagers,” Kolm said. “Basically [I enjoyed] being in a room where everyone’s happy that they’ve finished their applications. It was a nice mood.”
Originally, Batcheller wanted to invite the entire senior class to the Academy period event. “It had to be modified so that was disappointing,” she said. “I wanted it to be a party for all seniors and to be very inclusive, but there was some hiccups in the academy period and I was told that it wasn’t good to tag every senior because seniors need to be other places, which I totally understand.”
The party attendance was limited to only those students who signed up. “I did it mostly for those kids who see me regularly,” said Batcheller, explaining that space at the party was offered on a 1st-come, first-serve, basis.
With binding early decision and non-binding early action applications due November 1 and the University of California application due November 30, the month’s end marked the close of the 1st round of college applications.
Regular decision applications, however, won’t be due until January 1, a fact some seniors have noted creates a flaw in the party’s timing.
“It definitely wasn’t a party to end all admissions, because it was mostly centered on the end of UC admissions,” said Koshkin.
Timing aside, attendees enjoyed themselves. “It was still a nice thing to do,” Koshkin clarified. “It’s been a stressful time for the seniors and it was nice to have the end of this stage of the process symbolized with a real event.”
This party was just one reflection of the attitude Batcheller urges not only to seniors, but to students of all grades to have when approaching the college process: one guided by celebration and enthusiasm, rather than by stress and fear.
The college process, Batcheller explains, can offer both short-lived joys, like the senior application party, and more long lasting ones, like that of recognizing one’s academic purpose.
“I think it [the process] helps them have to be introspective about their life after Campo and what is it that they really want. I think there are a lot of positive experiences that happen when you have to be reflective about who you are, what you’ve been doing. . . That can be encouraging for someone,” Batcheller said.
Mainly focused on offering college representative interviews this fall, Batcheller looks forward to spending this winter and spring working on the Career Fair, guiding juniors to build appropriate college lists, and opening her academy time to work with upperclassmen, including seniors still enmeshed in the process.
Batcheller plans to pursue a like event in the spring, to celebrate decision day, or the day on which students declare what college or university they plan to attend, on May 1.
“My goal is to have a decision day, like whatever that is. People who do gap years, people who do military, to celebrate what everybody’s doing on May 1. I want to recognize all 320 of the graduating seniors,” said Batcheller.
