Here is a promising two-week professional camp run by Epicenter Pictures. They host 6 specialty tracks, including screenwriting, producing, directing, cinematography, acting, and editing. Each track learns independently and then all collaborate to produce several short films by the end of the camp.  The experience culminates in a mini-film festival on the final day.  Here is what Epicenter Pictures says:

The tracks are taught by peer mentors who, have already been working in film for at least five years and are eager to help you hone your art, develop your leadership potential and break into the film business. Additionally, guest speakers provide you with an opportunity to mingle with more established professionals.

What will you take away?

• A dynamic hands-on experience on your own live set, with the latest in indie-filmmaking equipment
• A short film that can be submitted to festivals across the country or incorporated into your professional reel
• A professional network to get you started in an industry where it’s all about who you know

Most film camps put a heavy emphasis on classroom work. Epicenter believes that you learn best by doing

If you are at all interested in film, this is a great program to check out. Registration is now open!

Meet i-Tunes U, a fabulous collection of (mostly) free lecture series from famous universities from Cambridge to Stanford!  Some are audio only, but some are enhanced by video tracks as well. Search the database by subject or by university. They download to your computer or i-pod for maximum transportability.

This amazing resource is found by opening i-Tunes on your computer.  On the lefthand sidebar, click on “i-Tunes Store”. When the store loads, look in the lefthand menu column for i-Tunes U. When you click there, several featured lecture series will be displayed, and you can search as you like.  It is easy to see which lectures are free – most are. You can download a whole series with a single click or select just the ones that impact your study.

I will never have a dull drive alone in the car again.  And, of course, you will list those universities as resources on your course descriptions!

Instant access to the extensive information in the print Guide at a fraction of the cost! Download only the chapter you need or the whole guide.  Each segment just $6.50! All five segments only $25.00

Choose from:

Countdown to College part 1: 5! Assess Your Starting Point

Explore God’s workmanship in crafting your student for a specific calling.  Consider the different vocations of men and women.  Learn to help your student find a vision for his or her life. Try the world’s oldest personality assessment.

Countdown to College part 2: 4! Aim for Success

The future is a moving target.  Plan to be where you want to be when it arrives.  Evaluate various post-high school destinations and the most advantageous paths to them.  Discuss how to position your school and to describe your educational aims to best display your high school work.

Countdown to College part 3: 3! Acquire Credentials

Do you know when to say “No”? Learn how to invest your limited time in achievements in four areas critical for winning scholarships, job opportunities, internships and more.

Countdown to College part 4: 2! Account Assets

Learn to create a complete school counselor’s pack that educational professionals will envy.  Structure transcripts and resumes to showcase your student’s achievements to best advantage.

Countdown to College part 5: 1! Apply for Awards

Don’t be intimidated by the college application process.  Walk through the process of admission and financial aid/scholarship acquisition from research to recommendation letters.

Countdown to College Guidebook Digital Edition

All five Countdown to College segments

Your download code will be sent to your email address as soon as your payment clears.

A search engine isn’t just a list of scholarships.  A search engine will ask you to complete a profile, and then will scan the web or its own databases for scholarships that fit your profile.  So happy hunting!

www.fastweb.com – free search; enter data on your academics, career interests, hobbies, etc. Fastweb emails you scholarships you can apply for based on that information! Our TOP PICK for scholarship search engines!

www.fastaid.com - The world’s largest and oldest private sector scholarship database. You will find scholarships here that you won’t find anyplace else.

www.collegeanswer.com – Voted Forbes’ best web site for college information, this site will give you knowledge on types of scholarships, requirements, tips, and scams in addition to a scholarship search.

Find out more about how to find and land scholarships in the Idaho Countdown to College Live Workshop on May 16th in Coeur d’Alene! Register today!

PSAT

Widely thought to be a practice for the SAT, the PSAT actually focuses on a completely different set of skills.  Given in the fall of the Junior year, this test is the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship.  Although the National Merit Scholarship itself is a small monetary value, it recognizes the top percentage of the top 1% of American students.  Colleges often try to attract this top-tier of students by plus-ing the scholarship with a full ride plus extras. So if academics are your strength this test is definitely worth taking.

SAT

This reasoning test is the most widely accepted exam for college entrance.  Generally it is taken in the fall of the Senior year, however, taking it for practice is recommended.

ACT

This is a another well-respected test for college entrance.  ACT focuses more on subject areas.  Since it tests achievement from a different vector, it is worth taking both SAT and ACT, to give the student maximum opportunity to demonstrate excellence.

SAT Subject Tests

Tests high school level achievement in specific subject areas.  These are offered only in a two-week window every May.  Each school determines which SAT subject exams it will offer.  It can be challenging to find a school that will be giving the test your student wants to take.  Research test centers well in advance.  Don’t wait until the Senior year to take these; take them the year your student completes the course.  Ivy League schools often ask homeschoolers to validate their transcripts by taking SAT subject exams.

AP (Advanced Placement)

These tests are designed to verify college-level achievement in high school.  They are subject specific, and are also only offered in a short window during the spring.  However, getting a terrific grade on an AP exam is no guarantee that college credit will be awarded. Each college has its own scale for awarding college credit or advanced standing based on AP exams. A good score on an AP exam may boost your chances for attracting scholarships.

CLEP

CLEP tests were developed to evaluate returning military personnel in order to award college credit for experience during active duty.  CLEP tests are subject specific. Colleges are required to award college credit to military personnel, but not to everyone.  Originally, CLEP tests were scored on a pass/fail basis, so that the only thing they could certify was that a student wouldn’t fail a given college course. Because of this scoring method, the exams didn’t command much respect.  Recently, CLEP has instituted a grading scale that allows colleges to correlate CLEP scores with A to F grades in a college course.  CLEP tests are available throughout the year.

*Grade-weighting is the practice of awarding more than 4 points for an A in an honors, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate class, so that it is possible for a student to have a GPA higher than 4.0.

This month, several of my devotionals about time management are being featured on CBN.com so I thought you might appreciate a practical follow up specifically about how to structure your time during high school for maximum effect.

Paradoxically, the first thing on the list needs to be: remaining flexible and available to God as He brings unexpected opportunities into our lives. Our second daughter, Anne, was knocking down the academic benchmarks almost as fast as we could put them out there, but she wasn’t sure of a post-high school direction. Then she was asked to compose, conduct and engineer the music for a short film. Composing hadn’t been the favorite aspect of her musical training. However, she made it her policy to “just say yes” when God brought her opportunities that wouldn’t detract from things she already had on her plate. So she decided to give it a try. She finished the composing aspect within two breathless weeks, discovering in the process, that when she had an actual reason beyond the “assignment for the week”, she truly loved composing. Remaining available to God may be vital to discovering His calling on a young person’s life.

So here is the general outline:

Freshman Year

• Pray specifically for direction and begin to consider what the student is called to become.
• Agree as a family about graduation requirements: include goals in academics, entrepreneurship, apprenticeship, and public service. (See especially the section on School Profiles in the Countdown to College Guide)
• Plot them out over the four years on your planning pages from the Guide or the e-Forms disk
• Plan the costs of your activities and academics.  Plan how you will cover them and which costs the student will bear himself.
• Begin to develop friendships with adults who can become mentors and recommenders by the end of the high school period.
• Register on FastWeb and other search engines, so that you can begin to apply for early scholarship money.
• If entrepreneurship is one of the things you plan to pursue, start your first business now.

Sophomore Year

• Take a practice PSAT exam, if your student is academically gifted. (PSATs won’t prepare you for the SAT, but they will qualify you for National Merit Scholarships, if you score high enough)
• Take practice SAT and ACT exams even if you don’t plan to go to college.  Often students discover they want to go to college later.  Standard exams like these will help to validate their transcripts later on, and are often considered more reliable measures of what the student has achieved than her GPA is.
• Adjust your 4-year plan to accommodate new opportunities and set-backs.
• Continue to pray, to develop adult friendships and to monitor scholarship search engines.
• Dream about colleges. Research programs that interest the student. (Try the ISI Guide to Choosing the Right College)
• Plan to visit colleges, if at all possible.
  
• If college is not your destination, dream about the opportunities you would like to pursue.  Begin to look for ways to try things out: apprenticeships, shadowing professionals in your field of interest, etc.  Negotiate an apprenticeship for next fall.
• Try a community college class or online distance college or AP classes.
• Take a slightly heavier load academically this year in order to have plenty of time next year for applying for scholarships and colleges.  Make sure you have core academics on track so that you won’t be blindsided by the standard college entrance exams next year.

Junior Year (Fall)

• Take PSAT, SAT and ACT exams.
• Pray and adjust your 4-year plan.
• Take a slightly heavier academic load now, in order to leave time next semester for scholarship application.
• If you are a bit behind, you can halve your time in class by taking the subject at community college.
• If you are doing a Junior year apprenticeship, start now, so that by spring, you have hit your stride.
• Visit colleges.
• Prepare School Profile, Course Descriptions, and update transcript and resume.
• Recruit recommenders for scholarships, college applications and job applications.

Junior Year (Spring)

• Set aside 15 – 20 hours/week to apply for colleges & scholarships.
• Take a slightly lighter academic schedule.
• Re-take SAT and/or ACT if you want to improve your scores.

Senior Year (Fall)

• Continue to spend 15-20 hours/week applying for scholarships, etc. This is the last big push for this.  Most major scholarships have deadlines November to January of the senior year.
• Final opportunity to improve SAT and ACT scores.
• Plan graduation celebrations.  Send notices to close friends & relations to save the date.
• Practice interview skills.  Major scholarships, jobs and colleges all require interviews.

Senior Year (Spring)

• Prepare for interviews.
• Apply for college financial aid.  College-based financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. So you’ll need tax forms, FAFSA and CSS Profiles completed as soon as possible in January and February.
• Resume normal academic load.
• Prepare the mid-year report for colleges, as soon as fall grades have been calculated.
• Complete graduation plans.
• Develop strategies for maintaining relationships and providing support if the student is going away after graduation.
• Give thanks for what God brings and for what He has done!

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Learn to  acquire the credentials you’ll need for launching into life, and to prepare the paperwork that will validate your achievements in Countdown to College: the Homeschoolers’ Guide to Winning Scholarships.

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The Value of Public Service

Parents are often surprised that public service plays such a large role in the post-graduate success of their young people. It is the close second to academics in attracting college scholarship money. It is a vital element of building a network for entrepreneurship and post-graduate work; the business you helped will be happy to help you and when they need an employee or free-lance consultant, you will be tops on their list. Public service is also one of the most important stimulants to developing compassion and maturity. And, if you are looking for positive peers for your teens, the other young people who engage in public service become a social network of extraordinary vigor, usefulness and delight.

Yet public service is not well understood by most families. We don’t sit around the soccer field discussing service opportunities like we discuss employment opportunities or college entrance exams, but service will benefit our teens far more than either of those. Most of us just don’t know what public service could look like on a teenager.

The Power of Young Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs serve their communities in another way.  Young people who start their own businesses while in high school learn that they never have to wait for someone else to give them a job. They will never be the ones taking a welfare handout or lining up for a government bailout. They develop the habit of seeing what needs to be done. The enthusiasm and vigor of young people bring a refreshing energy and high sense of ethical idealism to the marketplace. Not only are these young people the ones paying for their own extras as teens, but they are often the people making opportunities for others to make money.

The teen years are the ideal time for a young person to learn what it takes to be his own boss. During the course of starting a business, young people usually begin to develop the professional mentors and network connections that they will continue to  mine throughout their adult work life.  Young men are able to experiment with innovative business models and ground-breaking product ideas without worrying that wives and children will be injured if the innovations fail.Young women can establish a reputation and clientele for a home-based industry before they will interfere with family concerns. Scholarship committees, employers, and potential business connections sit up and take notice when a young person has taken the initiative to start her own enterprise. Teen entrepreneurship is the next best thing to being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

The Carpe Diem Cadre

Countdown to College will recognize teens who either become business innovators or who provide significant service to their communities as members of the Carpe Diem Cadre. “Carpe Diem” is Latin for “Seize the Day”, and we would like to honor those young people who don’t’ wait for some magic age to begin taking up their places as contributors to their world. We will tell their stories on this blog, and award a graphic for them to post on their own websites, digital signatures, Facebook Flair boards, etc. They will receive a FREE copy of the new audio CD, Resume Development for the Real World, and when Countdown to College comes to their areas, the Carpe Diem Cadre will be invited to attend the workshop for free and to speak about their service during the seminar!

Get Involved!

If you know a teen who engages in extraordinary entrepreneurial interests or public service, nominate him or her for the Carpe Diem Cadre. Click  here or on the Carpe Diem Cadre button on the sidebar for a nomination form and instructions. We’d love to hear from you!

High school music apprentice needs college too

Many in the homeschool community present college and apprenticeship as competing models for post-graduate work. But it ain’t necessarily so.

Surely, we want our children to have work experience and deep friendships with adults outside our homes as a pre-requisite for graduation from high school. They need the things apprenticeship provides before they leave home. It’s true that some businesses and trades will take an extended period of apprenticeship, which would extend beyond high school. However, many apprenticeship experiences will be enhanced by a college education.

My daughter’s mentor offered her an apprenticeship during high school, which has extended into her college years, providing her with real-world experience, a growing professional network and a tidy income through her school years. He now recommends that she pursue an advanced degree, so that the maximum number of opportunities will be open to her in her future as a mother. An entrepreneur and innovator, he himself wishes that he had pursued advanced degrees, because now he would like to supplement his income by teaching. In fact, his experience in his field makes him an ideal candidate for teaching, however, his lack of a Masters Degree bars him from the college offers he has received. He envisions a time in my daughter’s life, when she might welcome the opportunity to teach part-time in her field when her family needs additional income.

So while the season of preparation lasts in your children’s lives, don’t back them into an either/or box. Either college or apprenticeship. Instead, look for the creative combination of educational and preparatory experiences that will open the maximum number of doors for them, that will give them the most flexibility in a future that is sure to be filled with swift and mighty changes.

Let’s face it. Anticipating the sea changes that accompany our children launching out into maturity is plain terrifying.

Recently, I met an old friend at a coffee shop. While we waited for the barristo to do his magic, I asked how his family was doing. He hesitated a moment, “Well our daughter got married last weekend. My wife had been fending off a cold, but now she can hardly get out of bed. Our new son-in-law is a wonderful guy, and I think they’ll make a good pair…” His voice trailed off; he shuffled awkwardly.

“How wonderful…and how difficult,” I replied.

He looked up in relief. “Yeah, it’s really hard. This is the first time our daughter has been away for any extended time. Our family was a team. My wife’s best friend…”

“Sometimes these successes are almost enough to kill you off,” I offered. “Life is never the same. We have to help each other to find some new equilibrium. Well, congratulations…and condolences,” I toasted.

“Congratulations and condolences…That’s really it.” He shook his head, chuckling, “Nobody gets that part. Nobody wants to talk about it.”

My friend hit it on the head: Nobody talks about it. But the difficulty of transitioning from a 24/7 family to an extended family involves stretching and extending to a painful degree. Maybe you are ready to look at it.

Prepare your family to weather the transitional phase by creating celebrations today that will call your children home. Try the Magi Treasure Hunt: a Bible Study Game for the 12 days of Christmas.

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Coming Soon! Launch-Proof Legacy workshop and women’s retreat.

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