PTSA to host College Clinic on Oct. 16

photo by Annakate Dilks

The Shawnee Mission East Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) will host a College Clinic on Oct. 16.

This year’s PTSA president, Tiffany Connelly, is assisted by two president-elects that will be co-presidents next year, and a group of student leaders who were voted to be on the board as class representatives.

“The main job [of the clinic] is to help promote collaborative learning and advocate for parents and students,” Connelly said.

PTSA has also hosted school and community-wide events such as career chats, as well as helped classrooms by giving out grants to get materials needed to improve the quality of learning for students.

The organization gives about $12,000 a year away for teacher and classroom grants. This attribute of the organization was made to assist teachers in need of materials to sustain their classes. 

The College Clinic however is one of the PTSA’s most popular and important events to the community. It is in collaboration with the district and organized by East representatives. According to Connelly, it hosts approximately 200 colleges, universities and hopefully this year will include trade schools. 

The main goal of this event is to inform students about their college and occupational options moving forward. According to Connelly, it is one of the largest college fairs in the Kansas City metro area.

The college fair is a way that students who may not otherwise get the opportunity to visit colleges themselves, to talk to those universities and learn more about them. According to Connelly, it allows students to explore different options for a possible career and different places that they might want to consider going. It has all of the college spokespeople in one place at the same time, which allows students to talk to multiple university representatives. 

Alexis Proctor is one of the student representatives this year for the program. This entails taking part in discussions and attending the executive meetings. 

“It’s beneficial to the students and the colleges to see who’s coming in,” Proctor said. “[Last year] a lot of people came in and I think they got [the experience] they wanted.”

One of the most important aspects of planning big events like the college fair is getting students to voice their opinions and give a different perspective in the decision making process according to Connelly. The student representatives for PTSA are involved in these discussions to better the East community from their own personal viewpoints and opinions.

Throughout planning and discussing new ways to improve the school, the PTSA is reminded of their goal to make students’ lives easier and prepare them for the future.

“This year we’re really trying to grow East as a community and make sure people are getting involved.” Proctor said. “Just making [East] a bigger and better place for everybody.”