With homework in every class, multiple tests to study for, and extracurricular activities, high school can make you want to rip your hair out. Instead of worrying, and the unnecessary damage of hair follicles, here are some tips to keep you relaxed and on top of your work at the same time.

Write It Down

Things are much easier to manage when they are written down. Don’t take the chance that you can remember everything off the top of your head, you might end up forgetting something very important. This will only lead to stress in racking your brain trying to remember what you’re missing, or stress when you realize you didn’t do an assignment as the teacher is collecting it. By keeping up with organization, stress levels are sure to stay down.

Hip hop has always been an art form that has had to struggle to gain acceptance in various circles of music, entertainment, and society in general. That struggle continues when looking at using it as a positive tool inside and out of the classroom. As a student who never was extremely vocal until a topic (like hip hop) came up in class, I can recall dozens of memories where I not only used hip hop to remember important pieces of information for tests, exams, and papers, but I also used it to teach myself things that I knew next to nothing about. It definitely helped me through middle school, high school, and even now in college.

This is why it is so important to understand how hip hop has completely become a redefined art form, music, and culture. Of course, there are still the beats and catchy lines that you can learn in less than five minutes while waiting at a red light, but there’s never only positives when looking at anything and hip hop is not exception. However, there is something that hip hop does that many other cultural phenomenons have yet to continually do throughout their existence, and that is to fully connect with the audience in a real way. As we can see through disparaging test scores, failing schools, and intense competitions, to get into the few schools that are helping some students excel, there is clearly a lack of knowing what works with students and what doesn’t.

Sometimes what works with students is something very regimented and formal and fairly constricting, but sometimes what works is something that is very abstract and undefined at first. The beauty of hip hop is that you can use it to do both of these things. If someone is seriously interested in learning about the music industry, and all of the business that’s involved with it, then one has to learn all of the formalities, deadlines, and requirements when they are trying to get their music signed, marketed, distributed, etc. In the opposite direction, if someone is looking to build a community through hip hop, or create event(s) surrounding hip hop, than it is necessary only to have a strong idea and believe in that idea, followed by planning and taking into account all of the things that will need to be taken care of.

If someone takes the tools that can be learned from doing the above two examples of ways to use hip hop as a tool, and then apply them to other things in school, such as, starting/completing a project, organizing study groups, trying to understand the process of a solving a math problem, etc., then hip hop can be used as an influential and new way of teaching in the classroom. Students will gain a new perspective of their education, as well as the importance of that education.

That’s what schools are lacking today; that ability to help students understand the importance of their education in the long term. Hip hop can do that. It can help students reach that simple yet important realization. Without a tool like hip hop education, it is tough to say whether or not our schools and, more importantly, our students will pull out of this current nosedive. It’s completely possible but it will take a few teachers and passionate community members to make a sincere attempt at using hip hop to better education.

The summer before my freshman year at The University of Colorado at Boulder, I gave a co-worker a ride home. He was an attractive, blond guy with longish hair and a 60s swagger about him, as if he could have comfortably hung out with Bob Dylan or Led Zeppelin in their respective hey-days. He asked me what my plans were, having heard through the grapevine that I had graduated from high school. I told him I was going to CU in the fall, to which he related a story about his sister who, like me, leaned more towards bookish than party-animal and how she had gone to CU her freshman year, hated it, and transferred to a small East Coast school where she was much happier. He told me that I could always transfer too.

CU has a reputation for being a party-school, and having attended it for 4 years, I can attest that is a reputation well-deserved. That is not to say that it isn’t rigorous academically or that intelligent people don’t go there. CU has produced some extremely intelligent graduates and will continue to do so. However, to neglect the fact that it was voted one of the top party-schools by Playboy or that the 4/20 “smoke-out” is an enormous event on campus is to ignore a huge part of what has become CU’s identity, an identity with which I spent the majority of my undergraduate years at odds, because as Don Juan had astutely pointed out, I wasn’t exactly a tye-dye wearing, ganja toking, party-machine. I was an Audrey Hepburn enthusiast who had more than once been caught reading at parties and wasn’t much for intoxicants of any sort, I believe straight-edge is still the proper term. So you must be asking yourself, why on earth did this girl stay at CU when she could have just as easily transferred?

The answer is simple, I found my niche. Had I not found my niche at CU I would have undoubtedly transferred out. As any CU student (past or present) can attest, it is not the easiest of places to make friends if you don’t fit the mold. It is a widely known fact that the majority of people make their friends the first week of school in the dorms or by being outgoing and fitting in already, usually by being a rich, white, snowboard/bike enthusiast who has a penchant for Bob Marley and weed. Of course, not every person who is popular at CU fits into this stereotype, but one can agree, it certainly helps.

I, however, did not fit the stereotype and also made the fatal decision that maintaining my relationship with my ridiculous boyfriend at the time, who lived in Denver, was more important than making friends on my dorm floor and thus, I spent a lot of time with my friends from high school who were now going to CU and my Denver boyfriend. Had a series of events not occurred that led my Denver boyfriend back home to Vermont and my high school friends to disperse, I may have very well not found my niche at all and have had a very unhappy four years ahead of me.

As an incoming freshman I was immediately involved with two groups: The McNeill Academic Program with which my admission was contingent and the Chancellor’s Leadership Program: Ethnic Living and Learning Community Residential Assistance Program, aka my R.A.P., known as the E.L.L.C. for short, which I joined due to an interest in leadership and the upperclassman recruiting incoming freshman happened to be very cute. The decision to join the E.L.L.C. was by far one of the best decisions I made in all of college and also the decision that shaped my college experience the most, without which I know I would have transferred.

My second semester of college I was invited to join a few different Honors Societies, most of which I joined and then had little more to do with, but the one that I ended up being actively involved with for the rest of my undergraduate career was Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity. I became a brother in the Spring of 2008 and made a few of my closest friends through the organization. It wasn’t always a wonderful experience but it was definitely a defining one. I also was an editor for an online journal through McNeill called Subscribe.org and was sporadically involved with it for most of college, sometimes editing and sometimes publishing my work.

My sophomore year was wrought with change. All of the friends that I had made in college transferred schools, my boyfriend and I finally parted ways, and my high school friends and I began to drift further apart. I became a classroom assistant for the ELLC and remained one the next few years. The ELLC was where I made a great majority of my friends and the consistency and familial environment that the ELLC formed was a great solace in the choppy seas of college, to the ELLC I owe a great deal of gratitude. I also remained involved with Phi Sigma Pi and became the Academic Chair my second semester, a title I held through my junior year. I took a job as a voter registration person for Moveon.org and found the experience good but humbling as I was often ignored and not often met the kindness by my fellow Boulderites on the Pearl Street Mall. I did, however, meet a lot of very nice homeless people who took me under their wing and made sure that people weren’t too rude or too crazy towards me. I also took a speed-reading class and I became more involved in Golden Key Honors Society, ultimately, I ran for a leadership position within the group but narrowly lost.

By chance, I stumbled upon the Honors Journal, while looking into the Honors Program at CU for extra credit in a class. I inquired about the Honors Journal, having had some experience with publications through having been a Head Editor for the Yearbook in high school and editing for Sub-scribe, but their board was full and they already had a fiction editor. The advisor suggested I turn in an application anyway, just in case, and I did. Luckily for me, a few days later the fiction editor quit and I went on to be the fiction editor for 3 years, which was both a wonderful and educational experience. Additionally, I applied for the notoriously exclusive Norlin Scholars program and got in, which was one of my greatest accomplishments of my college career. Through the ELLC I discovered Community Access Mentoring and became a mentor. I mentored two middle school girls and stayed involved with C.A.M. until it unfortunately went under my senior year. The summer of my sophomore year of college I became a substitute caregiver for an assisted living home in Boulder called Golden West and have worked there ever since.

My junior and senior years I stayed involved with the ELLC, Phi Sigma Pi, Community Access Mentoring, Norlin Scholars, and the Honors Journal while holding my job at Golden West. Through Norlin Scholars and the Honors Journal I made a few more very good friends, rarely did I make friends in my classes, with the exception of those that I took for the McNeill Program or my leadership classes for the ELLC. The summer of my junior year I received an Instructor’s Assistant position in the Upward Bound Program, a position I had applied for the year before but had not gotten. I was over the moon with excitement. I also found out that on my second try I had gotten into CU’s Creative Writing Program. My senior year I took a break from Phi Sigma Pi for a semester, and then from the ELLC for the semester after that, while I wrote my Honors Thesis. I also got involved with theatre again, which was another experience I was quite proud of. I finished my thesis, a book of poetry about murdered and tragic women in history, and received Cum Laude distinction. My thesis was my most difficult undertaking in all of college but it was also my greatest piece of work to date.

The point of all of this was not to wax poetic about my accomplishments, but rather to prove a point. Had I listened to Casanova and transferred out of CU I might never have had any of the experiences that I had or accomplished all that I did. Yes, my experience at CU wasn’t always wonderful, but I think that it forced me to push myself harder than I ever had before because finding friends wasn’t always terribly easy and standing out when so many are just as good or better is a difficult undertaking indeed. As the late, great Frank Sinatra once sang in his song “My Way”:

“Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.”

I feel that those words best summarize my college experience. Yes, I had regrets, but in the end I pushed myself in ways that, had things been easier for me, I may never have. I learned that I’m a strong woman, and I think that if college taught me nothing else, it taught me that invaluable lesson. I hope that as you surf through the waves of college that they are not always smooth, because in the end I think we learn the most about ourselves when we are pushed to our limits. I wish you, too, few regrets to mention and nothing less.

There is no argument that the life of the college student can be full of stress and empty of free-time. A cell-phone conversation in the hallway still echoes in my ears, “A presentation, a ten page paper, a cumulative essay question exam, worth 542 percent of my grade. It’s all due in a week. But maybe I can still make it to Cousin Billy-Bob’s birthday bash, Mom, as long as I’m not dead from exhaustion.”

Now, while that may have been an exaggeration, anyone who has attended college can identify with that overstressed, eye-rubbing, hair-pulling anxiety over a complete lack of time. However, there is hope.

The answer lies in the planner, as in, a daily assignment planner. Deceptively simple, I know. But wait! There’s more…. A planner is a tool, and one that can ease the anxiety and stress of all-important due dates if used correctly. Here’s how:

First, write down important dates from your class syllabi on your planner’s monthly view. I know that the vast amount of assignment due dates and exam dates can seem overwhelming, but it’s important to have a bigger picture of what your semester will look like. It will also help to see where you might have free time for a home visit or pinpoint when you may need a little extra time off from work to be successful in your classes, as might have been helpful knowledge in the case of the overheard hallway converser. Let’s break up his schedule using our planner.

Now that you know you have an exam, a paper, and a presentation due one week from today, break the studying, writing, and preparation time into manageable, daily bits. This part goes into your daily view in your planner. For example, today, write down in your planner that you need to review chapter one for the exam, and research and decide on topic ideas for your paper and presentation. For tomorrow, review chapter two and create an outline for the paper and the presentation. It’s much less stressful focusing on what needs to be done next, not on everything that needs to be done. Your planner can help you to visualize this.

Lastly, and most importantly, remember to schedule in time for yourself. Even if you know you’re going to have an intense week, it’s still important to reward yourself with down time so you don’t get burnt out and give up. So, plan an evening to relax, see your Cousin Billy-Bob, go to a movie, or whatever you like to do in your free time.

High school. It’s a world away from middle school, which now seems like a small puddle compared to the vast ocean of new faces, teachers, and experiences. Freshman year can be the most difficult part of a person’s high school career, but hopefully these insights will help make your transition easier.

Ask Questions

It’s your first day, the words on your schedule appears to be written in gibberish, and you’ve got 5 minutes to find you 1st period class. There’s a simple solution to this dilemma, just ask for help. Any faculty member would be happy to help you out. Don’t feel comfortable asking an adult? Ask an upper classman. Believe it or not, they were just as confused as you were their first day. Though it may seem intimidating, more often than not, people are glad to lend a helping hand.

Pay Attention

After just being the top dog in middle school, I bet you think you have it all figured out. But high school is a whole new game, and the rules are different too. The teacher will explain all the class rules at the beginning of the year and most likely hand out a class syllabus. Make sure you know how each individual class operates so you aren’t caught unaware by any different rules or grading procedures.

Join Clubs

High school is a time to make new friends and the best way to do that is to join clubs! Keep your eyes and ears open for any information about clubs that you might find interesting. By joining clubs, you can meet new people who share the same interests as you. It’s a great way to make new friends, especially if you’re a little shy because that way you’ve already got something in common with a big group of people.

Start Off With Good Habits

If you start off this new chapter of your life with bad habits, there’s a good chance you will carry them with you throughout your entire high school career. Staying organized, keeping on top of your homework, and keeping your locker clean are a few good practices. But there are even some simpler ones that will make adjusting to high school easier. Get a decent amount of sleep every night. Eat a good, healthy breakfast every morning. Things that seem like second nature, but are actually neglected many students. If you have a good, positive lifestyle, your high school experience should follow suit.

Both are long, both are boring, but one is required.  Most schools will take either, and nowhere requires both.  So which one?  It is a good idea to take both once, find a score comparison chart, and retake the one which you received the higher score. However, it is helpful to understand more about the tests before going into them.

Choose which to take first based on which one seems to be the best fit for your type of intelligence.

The ACT consists of four entirely multiple choice sections and one optional essay (which costs extra, but many colleges require it!).  The ACT tests English, Math, Science, and Reading.  If you are good at geometry and algebra, have memorized many formulas, and have taken more advanced math classes in high school such as trigonometry and pre calculus, then The ACT math is suited for you.  If you don’t have a great vocabulary, but you are good with grammar and quickly recognizing the main idea of a passage, The ACT Reading and English sections may be best suited for you. The Science section does not usually require much knowledge of sciences like biology and chemistry, but it does test your ability to interpret data, understand research, and analyze conflicting viewpoints.  You must do all of this quickly.

The SAT consists of three sections: Critical Reading, Writing, and Math.  The SAT emphasizes vocabulary in both Writing and Critical Reading.  It also requires more in depth analysis of passages, instead of asking you to identify the main idea and locate specific details quickly.  The Math section is more tricks, algorithms, and logic than it is mathematics.  If you buy an SAT prep book, it will tell you how to solve almost all problems without actually using a formula and using logic to solve the problem.  If you are good at taking the time to think through problems using deductive reasoning and logic, and you have strong vocabulary, the SAT may be best suited for you.

The ultimate difference between the two is the timing.  They both end up taking around four hours, but they are broken up in extremely different ways.  The ACT is broken up in the same order every time:  45 minutes for English first, then 60 minutes for Math, then 35 minutes for Reading, 35 minutes for Science, and finally 30 minutes for Writing.  The SAT is broken down in a very different way: It will always begin with the 25 minute essay.  There will then be six 25-minute sections:  Two will be critical reading, two will be math, one will be writing, and one will be any of the three (it is experimental this section won’t count towards your score).  There is then one 20-minute math section and one 20-minute reading section, followed by a 10-minute writing section.

How are they scored?

The ACT is a composite score of 1-36.  The composite score is the average of the four subsections which are also scored from 1-36.  Your writing score is graded by two people on a scale of 1-6 and their scores are added together.  This does not affect your composite score.  Each section of the SAT is cored from 200-800.  They are added up to calculate your composite score.

A perfect is a 2400 or a 1600 if the college you apply to doesn’t take the writing section.  The national average is a 21 for the ACT and a 1500 on the 2400 scale.
Remember, you can retake the test if you do poorly.  It is recommended that students don’t take it more than three times, because studies show that scores are very unlikely to improve after that, but they are very likely to improve the second time or third time.

Choose the test that seems best for you, but take both at least once, because you may be very surprised.

Since we were old enough to answer the question, people have been asking us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When we were three we were asked because our answers were cute. In middle school, it was so we could start exploring our interests. But now, it is a serious question. And the funny thing is, the question was easiest to answer when we were three. Maybe that’s because the only careers that were known to us were doctor, teacher, president, and police man.

Now, every college has about fifty+ majors including biological anthropology, linguistic studies, and world literature. But just because you major in world literature doesn’t mean you will be a scholar in world literature. Not only do we have to pick a major, but then we have to decide which career we will choose with our major. For instance, if your major is psychology, you then have to decide if you actually want to go into psychology, and if you do, you have to pick what kind. Do you want to be a clinical psychologist, or an industrial-organizational psychologist, or a counselor? Maybe you will decide that you don’t want to be a psychologist at all, and you want to get your master’s in business instead. Then are you going to be a salesperson, an entrepreneur, or a market researcher?

This is such a long, complicated, and stressful process that you truly don’t have to figure out right now. If you are the kid who has never gotten below a 95 percent in chemistry and biology, then you might know your major already. Or maybe you have something you truly love to do. In my case, I really love writing and I really love talking to people and helping them. So for now, I plan to major in psychology and minor in English writing. Maybe I will take a college English course and love it. Or maybe, I’ll find out that it is not what is right for me.

A college will not reject your application because you choose “undecided” as your major. In fact, many colleges don’t allow their students to pick a major until sophomore year, because they know that students have a tendency to change their minds.

On the list of things to stress before you apply to colleges, this shouldn’t be one of them. There is already too much to worry about like test scores, extracurricular activities, and scholarship deadlines. There is no need to stress about what you want to do with your life yet.  Just know what you want in a college, and apply.

Many high school students see volunteer hours as a requirement for National Honor Society or Key Club, or a way to show colleges how great they are.  But volunteering means so much more than that.  It can be something that you truly look forward to doing, and something that really changes your perspective on the world.  Volunteering not only helps others, but it can help you to grow as well.

To me, volunteering used to be going with my school on mandatory Friday trips to a soup kitchen.  I was told to feel bad for the people standing in line, but also to keep my space from them.  The people standing in line were separated from my fellow classmates and me by a large iron gate.  Yes, I was able to help these people who were much hungrier than I by handing them food, but I am positive that seeing a group of children who are scared of them simply because of who they were didn’t make them feel better.  Feeding someone makes a difference for a day, but I believe that there is something of much higher importance: spreading hope.

The summer after my 8th grade year, I boarded a plane headed to Mexico with fifty other kids my age and older.  No, we weren’t going to Cancun.  We were going to a boy’s orphanage just outside of Mexico City called IPODERAC.  IPODERAC is a place where boys of many ages go because they have no parents or cannot live with their parents safely.  In order to stay there as well as go to school, the boys must make soap and cheese to sell.  They work hard, but they are treated well.

We spent time with the boys, talked to them despite the language barrier, and even played soccer with them despite our lack of talent.  We weren’t there to tell them that we felt bad for them and that we thought it was our duty to help them.  We were there to work beside them to build a new soccer field to reward them for their hard work.  We repainted and fixed up some of their buildings, not because we were being forced to or because we felt bad for them, but because we wanted to make them smile as much as possible.  Instead of feeding them for a day, we left them with a soccer field they could play on for a very long time.

I hope that every time they play, they think of us, because I think of them often.  We may have been the ones there to extend our helping hand, but they are the ones who inspired us.  Seeing boys as young as five without parents and knowing that they have already been through more than I have made me so sad. However, these boys never stopped smiling while we were there.  Not once.  They were truly happy, and that still amazes me.  Seeing the amount of joy these little boys got out of the simplest things in life really changed my perspective on a lot of aspects in my life.

The boys of IPODERAC may have already been happy when we came, but it feels good to know that we were able to bring them even more joy and hope.  In just ten days, I became closer to the people I was working with than I have ever been to anyone; I helped build a soccer field for kids that really deserved it, and I learned more than I could ever learn in a classroom.

I now volunteer because I want to.  And that’s the definition of the word isn’t it?  To freely offer to do something.   So think of what you love to do:  Maybe you love little kids, or puppies, or cooking.  Then, use your interests to find volunteer work that you will truly get something out of.  Work in an animal shelter and bond with both the animals and the people working with you; you can learn so much from those around you.

Volunteer at a local daycare with other kids your age.  The most important part of volunteering is to make sure you are actually working with the people you are helping. This way, you are truly able to get the most out of your experience, and it will be easier to stop looking at it as a requirement and to start looking at it as an exciting, educational, and inspiring event in your life.

Receiving college mail and emails may be a bit thrilling at first because they are an indicator that you are beginning the process of going to college.  However, once I had a towering pile of unread letters and emails, college mail went from thrilling to obnoxious.

Letters and emails began to come in mass amounts, and as a busy high school student I didn’t have time to read them the second they arrived.  The mail began to pile up in my inbox and on my kitchen table until I didn’t know what to do with it.  Most of the emails you receive will sound very similar to this email from Knox College:

“The basic principle behind everything that happens at Knox—both inside and outside of the classroom—is giving students the freedom to flourish. If you’re seeking a college that will give you the freedom to flourish, take advantage of this one last opportunity to say “I am Knox” and to make your statement with a Knox button. We’ll also include a poster that shows how Knox students express themselves.”

This is not useful in any way; saving it in your inbox will be a waste of space. But before you hit delete, make sure to hit the “unsubscribe” button in the email, otherwise this college will keep trying to contact you.

The simple letters you receive will say the exact same thing.  Recycle them; they are meaningless unless there is an indicator on the outside of the envelope stating that it is a recruitment letter or a scholarship opportunity.  The things that you should look through are the pamphlets and information books that you receive.   These tell you more about the college than a simple “we are unique, check us out!”

To speed up the process of reading brochures with important content, look for the following three things:

• The average SAT or ACT scores of admitted applicants.
• Their most popular majors.
• Special programs the college offers.

From here, you can determine whether it is a college you should look into, depending whether your test scores are close or up to par, they have the major or majors you might be interested in, and if they have a program that sounds like it is a good fit for you.

Recycle the pamphlets for colleges that don’t interest you, and organize the ones that do. If you really like the sound of a college, go to their website and find the “request information” section.  Information you have requested is usually a lot more helpful.

If you have already allowed it all to pile up like myself, take a couple of hours to go through it all. This is a grueling process, but getting rid of the pile will be very relieving and will help you get yourself more organized.

If you take these steps to ensure that your mail doesn’t become a mess, you will be much happier and much more organized by the time you are ready to apply.

I got goosebumps when I read the last line of the NPR story “For Nervous Seniors, Some Pre-Graduation Advice.” After spilling how being “overlooked” and “underestimated” is just “a part of life,” Professor Mitchell Zuckoff closes his speech to his, and the world’s, graduating students with some words of encouragement as they prepare to take fresh steps into the world of work:

Last, I tell [my students] to keep in touch, because I know how good they are, and how much the world needs them, even if no one knows it yet.

And then, I felt resentment.

I’m often reminded of the switch that went off on the last day of my college capstone class when I read articles about students getting ready to graduate (see above) and the struggling college graduates adjusting to life without school or work (If you haven’t heard, you can read about it here, here, here, etc).

In my last day of my capstone class, a counselor from the career center (I didn’t even know we HAD a career center!) came to give a presentation on the topic: “What you can do with a degree in English.” As we rooted around the online Occupation Outlook Handbook matching our literary skills with $30,000 salary jobs and figuring out if we would be out of debt in our 60s or 70s, I realized that even though I had fuzzy dreams of writing novels or articles for travel magazines or seeing my name roll by in the movie credits, I never thought about how to get there — and no one ever talked about it in college until this day, the last day of my life in college.

Whether you have your life planned out already or are still waiting for a little kick in the right, or any, direction, you should read Professor Zuckoff’s article to get some tough love and encouragement many college students are hungry for.

I also want to append his story with some practical steps that can help you graduate on time and search for employment while you’re still in school.

• Get an internship today: I had the good fortune of being required to have an internship for my journalism minor. I started working at LifeBound as an intern and now work here full time, writing, reading, and learning daily. When looking for an internship, interview at multiple places and pick one that challenges you to learn beyond what you’ve learned in school. For example: If you’re an English major, get an internship where you can use your skill and learn business skills. If you’re a biology major, pick a place where you can learn communication skills.
• See an advisor: You can never check to make sure you’re on track to graduate too many times. I lied a little when I said that capstone class was my last — I had to take a summer class because I was a class short from graduating. Our office manager at LifeBound was also a credit short. We aren’t dummies! Mistakes happen, but do your best to avoid them.
• Put your goals in writing: Don’t let your professional and personal goals get away from you. Your life will change when you graduate and it’s good to have little reminders of what makes you happy hanging around to keep you grounded. I recently made a dream board of everything I want to do. I just checked off “run a half-marathon” (brrr!) and threw “hike Mount Kilimanjaro” on there to keep me motivated.

Share your tips for graduating college students in the comment box below.