More than 100 people turned up for the first college and career workshop organized by the Youth Affairs group of the Indian Americans of Lexington ( IAL) at the community center in Lexington on May 14th. The workshop titled “College and Careers: Debunking Myths” invited local students, parents and alumni of LHS to share their experiences on how to navigate the high school courses, admission process and the stress associated with these efforts and showcased multiple pathways to success.

Manjula Karamcheti, Assistant K-12 Director of Guidance, LHS gave the opening keynote and talked about her personal journey and her transition years and how she chose her career as a conscious choice. Manasi Singhal and Sujay Utkarsh opened the morning discussion sharing their reasons on why they were driven to hold this panel. Manasi Singhal, Co-Chair of IAL Youth Affairs and an LHS alumni talked about her own experience applying to college years ago and her  belief that much has changed and felt it was important to address this need. She also said that her present job working with students who constantly asked questions on these topics also reinforced this idea. The panelist consisted of Roshan Padaki, Vyoma Sahani, Aiyappa Kodendera, James Yu, Sneha Rao, Saatvik Ahluwalia, Sanjay Padaki and Chandrika Govardhan.

The common refrain for many who spoke was making right choices and understanding what is right for you as an individual instead of succumbing to the overall pressure of what everybody else does.

Some takeaways were:

Why are APs hard

    - speed at which they are taught

    - need to learn a lot on your own

    - teachers expect you to be interested in the subject

What are colleges looking for, what did you do that made you stand out

    - you are not a number but a person and colleges want to know the person

    - leadership skills and ability to work in a group

    - show that you are passionate about something

    - let your personality show through your essay

    - Alumni interview

    - campus visits

 Would omission of any thing impacted your chances of getting in

    - colleges do not care about what you did vs did not

    - colleges want to know that you were engaged and active

    - don't just study

    - even if you just like one thing, that is good

    - do not try to trick the college admission process

 Did you do Honors Math in 9th and does it impact your high school experience and/or college admission

    - one course does not matter

    - even if you do not do honors math in 9th you can always do honors next year

  

Paying for private college - is it worth it?

    - college is not about where you go but what you do with that experience

    - in long term the name will and does not matter

 Any suggestion for freshman on the activity they should pick

    - go to activity fair

    - try different things

    - find your interest and passion and pursue through clubs

Passion - who to find, when to find, what if you do not find in time for college applications

    - passion must be organic

    - different people find their passion at different points

    - it is not about the length, it is about the depth with which you pursue something

 How many hours of sleep did you get in high school

    - not many

    - need to manage time well so can sleep well

    - need 7-8 hours of sleep

    - sleep is important

 How to handle rejection

    - apply only to colleges that you want to go to 

Overall parents and students appreciated the workshop very much as useful in undermining some of the stress. 

Deep Ray and Ratna Sen, whose daughter attends LHS summed up the workshop :"We appreciate very much IAL organizing the workshop. As our child stands on the threshold of high school, the myths associated with Lexington High School, taking AP classes, writing college applications and getting into a 'dream' college have been front and center for us, just like I am sure with other families in our situation. With that in mind, the "Debunking" session was very relevant. The arrangements were excellent and we appreciate all the hard work and planning that were instrumental in making this event a success. As parents, we had questions and concerns about high school course-load and college planning. The Q&A with the panel certainly addressed our questions about the college application process. We sincerely appreciate the candor with which the panelists shared their individual stories, their struggles and success. Our child attended the event and we think the stories we have all heard would be very helpful in planning her and our :-) "high school journey".