#163 Building Your Teen’s College Support Team with Megan Rose Transcript

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT… PLEASE FORGIVE THE TYPOS & GRAMMAR! xo-Lisa.

Lisa Marker Robbins  00:43

as a parent of a college bound teen, you focus on supporting your teen to reach their goals fully. So how do you achieve this? Today, we’re exploring how families can build a strong support network for their teens college journey by understanding when and how to compliment their school counselors guidance with additional resources. I’m excited to welcome back to the podcast Megan Rose. She brings a valuable dual perspective to our conversation, having served both as a school counselor and now as an independent educational consultant, Megan understands firsthand how these roles can work together to support your teens college planning process, we’ll discuss how to make the most of your school counselors expertise while understanding when and what additional support might benefit your family. You’ll learn practical strategies for creating a collaborative approach, regardless of your budget, ensuring your teen has the guidance they need during this critical time. I’m Lisa Marco Robbins, and I want to welcome you to College and Career Clarity a flourish coaching production. Let’s dive right in to a great conversation. Megan Rose IEC, welcome back to the show. Thank

 

Megan Rose  02:00

you for having me back. The second time is easier. I think it’s a lot it’s a lot more like coming this time. So thank you so much for inviting me back on Well, I

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  02:10

remember last time you did, and I think it’s a great message to the teenagers that we both work with. The first time you were like, you were like, You even told me, I’m so nervous, and I’m like, Oh my gosh, Megan, it’s just two professionals having a fun conversation. It’ll be totally fine. And you showed up nervous, and you were fantastic. So if you want to, let’s go back and listen to Megan’s previous episode. I think it was just, we’re almost up to two years ago, believe it or not, where we talked about AP testing and all things AP, because you’re a former AP high school teacher, and then at the end, you were like, Oh, that was it’s already over. Oh my gosh, that was so easy. And then today you show up, and you’re like, relaxed, and you’re like, This is going to be fun. I mean, what a great lesson to all the teenagers. We do hard things. And I always say it looks like Courage, or it looks like confidence on the outside to people who don’t know, because they go back and listen to that previous episode and you looked confident, great. And it took courage on the inside,

 

Megan Rose  03:19

yes, yes, yes, yes, for sure, right? And again, it’s like, it seems so scary at first, and then you do it, and I’m like, Oh, that was easy, right? You know, your mind gets the best of you, all of our minds, even not just students, parents, too, our minds, adult professionals, our minds sometimes can get the best of us.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  03:35

It’s so true, and i That’s why I love normalizing like we all feel this way. It’s not just if you’re 15, it’s, you know, I’m 56 and it still happens.

 

Megan Rose  03:45

We get a little nervous, for sure, absolutely. So I already mentioned

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  03:49

you previously had been a high school teacher. You taught AP. We talked about that last time. We’ll go, we’ll put that in the show notes for families that want to listen to that, because we’re going to publish this episode coming up quickly. So here is late February, or I think first of maybe first of March, and then AP testing is right on the horizon. But you transition from being a teacher to a school counselor at a really great high school in New Jersey, yes. And then when you all moved to Florida, you stepped out of the school role and became an independent counselor.

 

Megan Rose  04:27

Yes, I did. I did go ahead. So I was for it in the state of New Jersey. When I was a teacher, it actually was a law. So you had to be a teacher. When I started in 2002 it was three years before you became a school counselor, and that then changed to one year. I don’t believe me personally, I would not have been as effective of a school counselor had I not had that experience in the classroom. I think not only so much from understanding the teacher side. I think really understanding. Student side, you know, being classroom and the everyday. And then, yeah, I was so fortunate and lucky to be able to transition in the high school I had been working in as a public school counselor, and I did that for three years, and then my husband was transferred, yeah, to Florida in 2019 and I don’t know if anyone remembers what was happening in 2020 but when I was trying to get a job in public schools, because that was always my plan, to go back into schools, no one was hiring, right? Schools weren’t open. We had COVID. So I started slowly helping out people here and there. And I thought, You know what? You know there’s, there’s a real market for this. There’s a definite need for this. Specifically, I think, at the time I moved in 2020 there was such a need for this. And then since there, yeah, my practice has certainly grown. So I’m an IEC in Florida, but I work with students, predominantly in Florida, but also New Jersey, also, just because of my history there and the relationships that I formed there, and it’s been great in really the going on to 2020 I really started my business 2021 so going on for years, it’s been great. It’s really been a great, great business for me. The

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  06:16

reason I wanted to have you on was because you’ve worn these two different, different, yet similar, college counseling hats and I regularly in our launch Career Clarity course that parents or even the teens themselves will say like I think, because we’re helping them only on identifying the career path. We’re doing Career Development and Advising and college majors and all that, and we don’t do all the other pieces that go along with this wild, college bound journey. As a mom, you’re just getting ready to start it, and I remember it was very different when I did it as a mom. But I’ll get families that you know throughout the course, they’ll say, Do you have a referral? Which I have lots of referrals, but do you have a referral of somebody that could help us on the other pieces, like identifying the right colleges, the funding College, the essays, the apps? You know, we’re getting some help at school, but my poor counselor has 400 students on her or his caseload, I feel like we went a little bit more. Now that we’re clear on the major and the career, we’re ready to go that next step, and there’s a lot of confusion on the parts of parents, like, what do I use my school counselor for? Is it bad? Are they going to be angry if I start to work with an IEC what does that look like? So I thought, hey, nobody better than somebody who’s worn both hats to kind of, let’s like, just kind of peel this onion sure on this. So I think my first question is like, as a school counselor, well, what was your caseload,

 

Megan Rose  07:54

right? So as a school so let’s keep in mind this, right? So the American School Counselor Association is very clear on what a caseload should be to be an effective school counselor. What do you do? You know what that is? Lisa, sorry, I think it’s

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  08:07

I can probably Google it while we’re doing this. It’s around like 200 I think so

 

Megan Rose  08:12

to be in effect, what I recall? Do you know the number? Yeah. So American school counselors say that to be an effective school counselor, school counselors should have no more than 250 students on their caseload, right, which, again, with budget cuts, right? Um, I don’t really know of a public school that can do that. So my caseload at a great public school in New Jersey was around 360 I had about 100 seniors the average, because I actually looked it up the other day, the average in the United States is around 400 in the state of Florida, it’s over 430 right? So, so it’s, it’s important for parents to really understand what that looks like, right? So if I want to help 430 students, right, in 180 days, how do I do that, right? So, so that’s the important piece. And

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  09:10

wow, I also, I’m going to interrupt and just say, like, it’s not just like in those 180 days for all those students that all you’re working on is the college list, the college bound stuff. I mean, you’re doing scheduling and divorce groups and grief groups mental health, like, IEP 504, meetings. Like, it’s wild,

 

Megan Rose  09:32

yeah. And again, you know, like I had, I have my master’s in education, my Master’s of Science in educational counseling. And I really had such such amazing professors, but they all said the same message, your number one job as a school counselor, your number one job right is to advocate for your students. That is your job, right? But in addition to advocating, what else do we support? Their academic goals, right? Their career goals, their social and emotional. Health graduation requirements, right? So once we do all that, we also have to attend every 504 meeting for students, all of the IEP meetings for students speaking to teachers about, Hey, what happened yesterday? I got you know, he was really upset. I get a sense there’s a little bit more to this than what’s actually going on. But, you know, I think the other piece that a lot of parents don’t think about is I’m a mom, right? And I’m very passionate about my job as a mom, but also my role as an educator, mental health is always the most important part of me with my clients, with my family, you know? So if I have a meeting with a student on October 31 to get November 1 deadlines out, and I have a crisis, and one of my students is going in an ambulance to the hospital, I’m going in the ambulance with that student, yeah, so I won’t be there getting those applications out. And you know, it’s really important that parents understand that the school counseling job is responsible for wearing so many hats, and quite honestly, I think we are as a culture setting them up for failure, right? Because that’s when students will say to me, my counselor never told me this. Your counselor never and I’m going, I bet they did, I bet your counselor did tell you that, right? So what does school counselors do typically, right? They’re going into English classes, right? So how do I make the most out of getting across to all of my let’s call it 100 seniors. How to start this, how to make a list. What is the common application? I had parents, but what you guys, what is the common application, right? What is Naviance or score, right? What is this? So typically, school counselors will go into what are students required to take English? We’re going to go into English classes, right? I’m presenting to English classes. What’s happening? Well, the five kids in the front row are paying attention, and then a few couple kids have to go to the bathroom, and then you have kids on their cell phone, and then they come to me, right? Or to their parents. No one told me that I was I was never told that. So that’s another part of this also, right?

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  12:15

So I it’s being said. I always say, we’ve got to say eight things or eight times anything we want somebody to really hear, right? And it needs to be said over and over. So what I heard in there too is, hey, parents, be sure you’re reading all the communication, I mean. And I hear from parents all the time, oh my gosh. We get so much from the school. It’s too much. I can’t read it all. Yeah, you’re still doing it. I’m no longer having to do that as an empty nester over here, but it was a lot. It is a lot, but that’s where these little nuances are, because they have to group communicate, because they can’t provide that one on one level of guidance. Because you’re right, we’re not being fair to them. You know, I too. I was a teacher for eight years. My master’s degree is in educational leadership, so principals license, things like that. I never went on to do that. I started my company that we did test prep and tutoring and independent college advising, and I just sold that back in July last year. But you know, I said when I started being a teacher to when I left the classroom just eight years to even now, the size of this the plate of a counselor, hasn’t increased, but we’ve just kept piling more and more and more and more onto it. So I always felt like as an IEC myself, I never looked down on a school counselor because we to your point, we’ve set them up for failure. And families aren’t necessarily listening to all the communication and that the nuts and bolts I feel like are being said, but it doesn’t give that level of guidance that some families want. Like, what would you say are some signs that a family might want to consider using an IEC or some program that might serve them best, and not everybody can afford it,

 

Megan Rose  14:11

right? Well, I was going to say, right. So, so step one, right? It’s like, what is the budget look like, right? So you know, because there are, you know, a lot of free resources out there. I know you have social media pages. I have a social media page. So many of our colleagues have social media pages and really trying to get as much information out there. Podcast.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  14:29

I mean, well beyond my podcast, right? Like the podcast, yeah,

 

Megan Rose  14:34

we have podcasts. Um, I know myself and others. You know, I join a lot of local panels, right? So there’s local scholarship organizations here, and they’ll host free events for families, and I’ll be on the panel along with others, people who are experts in financial aid and different pieces, right? So I think budget is the first piece, right? So you want to take a look at, you know, what is your overall college budget? Right? And I think that’s where we really come in. And I think parents will be surprised. You will see you know, quite a difference. And I would argue, I think most consultants, IECs are affordable, right? And again, you’re like anything else, right, whether you’re getting someone to help you build a home or someone to give you new air conditioning or fix a fridge, right? You’re going to get different estimates, right? So you really want to take a look at that, and then it’s like, you know, what is your child’s need, right? There are some kids who will go to these group meetings, and they take notes, and they email the counselor right away, and thank you so much. And they get right on score, and they figure out how to use, you know, Naviance, or whatever it is that the school is using, right? But then, right? There are those other kids that I find, you know, they’re a little overwhelmed with their course loads, right? It’s, you know, we are talking about AP. We are in the age of, how many AP classes should we be taking? This I work with a lot of kids who are in sports, in musical theater, right? They are working. So it’s not a matter of them not wanting to do it independently. They don’t have time to look all of this up. So I think if we’re looking at affordability, right, and you’re able to afford this, just like anything. And I also joke, you know, you’d like to preserve the relationship with your child. I sort of, I sort of joke a little bit about that. That is

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  16:28

not even a joke. I mean, when my kids were teenagers, i This is funny. I had this moment last year where I remember I used to always think, what do i Is this a hill I want to die on? Because I want to have an intact, great adult relationship. And I, for some reason, always pinged ahead to 26 and I would ask myself, as a mom of teenagers, is this a hill to die on? What do I want this relationship to look like at 26 and then last April of 24 my oldest turned 26 and it suddenly hit me. I was like, Oh my gosh. I always said 26 for some silly reason, probably because we hear that the male brain is not really fully developed until that age, right? And so that’s probably subconsciously why I chose 26 and I thought I am so proud of the relationship that not not that I’ve done, but that he and I have established together that at 26 we’re in such a great place, and we weren’t always in a great place. But yes, that’s so important. Like, don’t lose sight of that. Yeah, if these other resources can help you keep some peace at home.

 

Megan Rose  17:38

Yeah. And I think, like anything, right? I think if you know parents who are listening, it’s, what do we say? Did you turn that homework? Well, why does it still say zero? Let me guess your teacher didn’t grade it yet. She didn’t put in the grade, right? So we are kind of already in this, you know, do you Did you pack your cleats? Did you do? Why did you leave this at home? So then to throw in, right? Have you opened your common application? Did you finish your activities. Did you join that honor society? What are you writing your essay about? Where are you applying? I think parents often look at me and go, do I have to come to any of this? Do I Do I have to go to any of these meetings, right? And I love that, because it also means the students right are now steering that ship. And I’ll say what I hear more often than not. And I think when we because parents are involved in the process, right? So you get your emails and some consultants you go to every meetings, my parents don’t. But what I hear so often when parents leave the room, right? Is, do I do? Are there any other Do I really have to go to that college? And I’ll go, Well, wait, this is your first choice. This is your dream. You were, you were at these football games when you were three and four and five years old, and they go, my parents, my parents really want me to go there, but I’d really love to go. And I think often, right? It just kind of expands their mind to other options, right? And, you know, parents, I think you’re kind of seeing this, but you know where you maybe got in 30 years ago, it’s quite different now. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot, it’s a lot different. You

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  19:10

know, I’m, I have always when I have the IEC hat on, which is not very often anymore, because I’m double down on Career Development and Advising, but when I have that on, you know, I want the parent at the first meeting. I would have a parent at a kickoff meeting for application and essay season right when school gets out. I have the parent come to one meeting in the fall. But it really is, the kiddo with me, and the parents, to your point, are relieved. But what I also hear from parents sometimes, because I, you know, I’ll send an update and say, like, Hey, this is what we discussed. This is the next steps of what I’ve asked them to do, you know, or hey, get those visits scheduled, or whatever it is. And sometimes parents will say, Oh my gosh, I told him that. He didn’t believe me. I’m glad he’s listening to you now. And it can be frustrating, but I’m like. Just be relieved by that, right? That? Because some sometimes the kids just need to hear it from somebody else, even if it was something that you were telling them

 

Megan Rose  20:09

for sure. Yeah, and the same thing with school counselors. I’ll say that. They’ll say, like, oh my and I guarantee you what I always say, I guarantee you the school counselor told them that, right? But it’s when they’re in my office, one on one, and, you know, they are really all, as the kids say, locked in, right? I try to try to pick up. They’re all locked in on the meeting, right? That’s really, I think, when that happens, right? So it’s sort of just taking, you know, another layer that parents feel like they have to do, and just kind of unburdening them with that. And, you know, you’ll constantly get, no it’s parents always have access to their students, common app, you know, you can see all of that. But I do, you know, I do think it does somewhat preserve, you know, the relationship I joke. You know, my daughter is like, Well, who am I going to work with? And I was like, me, but that is actually a very good question, right? Because, you know, it is, it is a lot, and it can be very overwhelming.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  21:06

I actually, when my kids were going through it, I had colleagues of mine, because I have, I have a team, and I’m not a solo operation. And so I would have my colleagues prep them for their A, C, T. I would have my colleagues help them with their essays, help them with, you know, do their Berkman personality assessment that we use in the course to meet with them one on one. Because I knew that I might even I’m the owner. I, I, I believe, Oh, I probably do some of these things a little bit better, or I’m more experienced, but my kids gonna hear it differently from somebody else? For sure,

 

Megan Rose  21:43

for sure. Yeah. And then, like, in terms of our relationship with school counselors, like, again, we we have to have working relationships. Families have to have working relationships with the school counselors. School counselors play a vital role in the college

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  21:57

let me ask you a question. As a school counselor, I’m sure you found yourself in a situation where a family that you had on your caseload of your 300 whatever students. It’s funny that I thought it was 200 that the suggested in 250 I mean, 250 sounds like a lot to me, yeah, but you had students who were using an IEC Sure. Did that bother you? Were you? Did you ever like would you? How did you want a family to handle that? Would you rather than tell you in advance? Would you rather not? Did you not care to know? Was it important for you to know?

 

Megan Rose  22:36

I mean, again, I think my I always have had great relationships with every family I’ve ever worked with, right? And I think it says more about the families, necessarily, than me. And so families would typically email me, you know, hey, hey, Mrs. Rose, you know, thank you so much. We’re going to be working with so and so on this, you know, if they wanted me to have a like to coordinate with the IEC, then it would get, I would have to sign a release, right? So it would get a little bit more involved, because I can’t disclose, clearly, my suit, my anyone on my students personal information. Um, but no, I mean, that never would have bothered me. In fact, actually, when I started on my own, sort of on accident, one of the first people I reached out to was an IEC where I was a public school counselor. And I was like, hey, any chance you would be able to kind of talk me through this and without hesitation, you know, Marnie, who I know I was just gonna say, Oh yeah, yeah. Without hesitation. She was like, When can you jump on a zoom, you know? And we still kind of have this zoom. We call it the Jersey girl zoom. And there’s a couple of us now who do this, but yeah, it was without hesitation. And again, I think, I don’t know. I think there’s this fear from parents that they’re going to get mad at us. I think IECs and school counselors have worked very hard to have a good relationship, you know, we are on Facebook pages together. We’re sharing information with one. Hey, did you hear this school is no longer test optional? You know, I know, even locally, you know, University of Alabama yesterday held a luncheon. I made sure I reached out to other school to school counselors, like, Hey, do you guys know that this is happening? So, you know, we are professionals and we are adults, and we want our children right to work with others. And I think that’s, I think it’s more common than people think that we do have this working relationship

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  24:26

as collaborative, not competitive, no, for sure. And it’s important

 

Megan Rose  24:30

that parents understand the role of the school counselor. You know, for I’m in Florida, so it’s a little different here. But, you know, most schools require letters of recommendation, right? So that’s from teachers, but also, most schools want what’s called a written evaluation, right? And that’s from the school counselor, right? And so I used to tell my students, that’s the story behind your transcript, and it’s the story behind your letters of recommendation. What do we want to say? Right? And then, obviously, responsible, of course. For sending the transcripts for schools that don’t require the SAR so you have to everyone has to have a working relationship with each other.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  25:08

So, and that’s what I was going to ask you. So even if you are working one on one with an IEC parents, teens, we have mostly parents listening, yes, your school counselor. There are things that your IEC I always would say this. There are things I cannot do. You need to maintain a healthy working relationship. They can’t give you copious amounts of one on one essay, coaching and reviewing your applications with a fine tooth comb. But there are things they’re still going to do. So let’s just, like, make it a little checklist. So give us the checklist of the school counselor, what you’re going to have to have. So I

 

Megan Rose  25:47

think what’s most important is the written evaluation, right? So I want parents to think of that. That’s the letter of recommendation from the school counselor, right? So your teacher, letter of recommendation, right? Is going to really highlight who are you as a student? Right? Hard working. You get along with people. You advocate for yourself, right? What I like to say, really the school counselors letter is, like, what did the teachers not say? Like, maybe they don’t know that your child is the child when there’s a new person who comes into the school, I’m like, Lisa, we have a new student in the school. I looked it up. You guys have the same lunch period together. Do you think you you would be okay? You know, just like sitting with them, talking to them about clubs, things like that. Oh, Mrs. Rose, I would love to do that. That should go into the written evaluation, right? So it’s really like the story behind the transcripts. And again, it can talk about certain accolades and things like that. But I used to like to put into my evaluation things that would not be on the application, right? So I wouldn’t really mention the clubs, you know, like, not necessarily, like, Oh, they’re a National Honor Society, but like, are you my go to person? Are you the safe space? That’s what I want in there, right? So that’s super important for a lot of schools. Then, of course, in addition to that, how did the kids, how did the schools get the transcript, right? So I don’t want to overwhelm parents, and I think parents, if you’re listening, I try to, you know, not use acronyms and words, but some schools as specifically, most Florida public schools require the SAR, right? So it’s a self reported form. Students self report their grades, and then the counselor doesn’t have to do that. That’s not a majority of schools. So majority of schools require an official transcript, right? That must come from the school. So typically, the school is going to send that. I guess it depends what your school use. So whether you use Naviance, right, or whether you use score, but you know, students really have to be updating those. So it’s sort of a way that students are communicating to their school counselor, right? Well, I’ve

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  27:51

seen schools also have, you know, different rules, like we have to have at least two weeks notice or three weeks notice. So you know, what I’m hearing is, regardless of anything, there’s a role for the school counselor to still fulfill and keep talking to them and building a relationship, because they’re telling the story behind the transcript, I love, I love that. You know, you putting it that way, is the story behind everything else that’s coming in so and if tell your school counselor if you’re using an IEC now, what is the IEC able to do one on one that the school counselor just there’s just no way with this case load, that the IEC is going to be adding value.

 

Megan Rose  28:43

I think, obviously, really spend time and get to know who the student is, right? I really think, I really think that’s it. You know, when I was working in schools, one of my feet I did not love having lunch duty. I don’t know if there’s any teachers I that was a favorite thing that I had to do, but I had to do it right. That was a part of my job, and it’s a part of school counselors job, and but I loved that I was able to pick up like, wow, like just some character of certain kids. I would see the same few kids introducing themselves. I would see the kids who noticed that there was a kid sitting by themselves at the lunch table, right? And that they would then invite them, right, like the kids who were, you know, you can sit with us. You know, I love to me. I felt so fortunate to be able to see that, because I could put that in the letter, right? But not all school counselors have that, and not all kids think to tell them like, oh, well, you know, I don’t know if you know this, but this is what I do. I think the relationships that students form with IEC, that’s when all of that comes out, right? Like, oh, wow, that’s what you do. Oh, yeah. And well, and there’s a new student in school, and, you know, I saw they had cleats with them, and I was like, Oh, wait, you know, we’re looking for a defender. Are you a defender? And it’s really that relationship where. Start to pick up different qualities, different traits, different characteristics, that, of course, we then are able to kind of put together in a nice package, right? Whether that’s in their main essay, whether that’s in their supplemental essays, whether that’s in their activities, I really think it’s the one on one time too, you know? So when most IECs are not working with students, right? We typically work, obviously after school hours. What are we doing? We’re visiting, right? So we are traveling to schools. You know? I know part of being in our professional organization, you have to see a certain amount of schools to be a professional member, right? But most of us are spending a lot of time visiting schools. I just got back from an amazing visit at Lynn University, and while I’m there, I’m making a list of these are the kids that this school would be a great fit for. So really, we are investing time in truly becoming experts on building this list for students, right forming relationships with admissions officers, right? Again, if I’m not visiting, I’m jumping onto zoom calls and talking with different universities. You know, who would be a good fit? Oh, you have a new data science major. I didn’t know that, right? So we really are able, right? Because we don’t, I don’t know of any solo IEC that takes on 400 students, right? So we really are able to use that time to learn more about the schools, which then, right? We’re able to build a better list. Our goal, of course, is finding the perfect fit for students, right? That’s our that, you know, I know everyone wants to go to the public State University, which is great, right? And again, that’s amazing. But sometimes when we have this relationship, right? Parents can tell their child, I think you do better in a smaller school. But I think to your point, when we’re saying, I just visit. Can I show you a couple pictures I just visited? You want to take a look at my notes? We I would love that. Oh, wait, they have that class there, right? So I really think it’s that relationship building is, is the is a really large part of this. This

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  32:05

is so great because you have, I like that. You were able to normalize this is what I wanted parents to hear, like it’s, oh, there’s a both, and it’s not binary. You don’t use one or the other a you have to, regardless of if you’re going to every free panel and offering out there, and listening to every podcast, and you feel that you’re learning a lot to go it on your own, because you don’t have a budget to invest in an IEC, you still need your school counselor. Oh, for sure, if you are paying an IEC, you still need your school counselor. So it is a both and and it’s collaborative, not competitive. So don’t be afraid to tell the school I love your story about you know Marnie. When you you know Marnie is a fantastic IEC that we both know. She’s been on the show a couple times. Oh yeah, and she’s the one that suggested you for the show. Yes, yes, you your relationship started because you were the school counselor, and she was serving as the IEC for some of your families, and then she helped you get your IEC practice off the ground and really to resource you. And that’s a beautiful story of how we all work together to support students, and

 

Megan Rose  33:21

even now, you know, like I said, like my the former counselors that you know I worked with will text me, Meg, like, is there a school or what do you know? You know, again, my closest friends and family members, you know, my sister is an assistant principal of guidance, so she’ll sometimes say to her team, Oh, do you have a kid looking there? Call my sister. I bet my sister will know something about that, right? So, you know, there’s no reason, right? There’s no reason that we don’t collaborate and work together. And I think, again, I’ve only been doing this for a few years, so my experience has always been positive, which I hope is that what we’re moving towards, I think a lot of us are together on different social media pages and giving tips. And, you know, like I was at this luncheon yesterday with the University of Alabama, and it was school counselors and IECs, you know. And the other thing I also want to make sure that parents know is, like, if you were to Google sometimes IEC you know, like a New York Post article is going to come out, and it’s going to say that, you know, they’re charging $100,000 right? We’re not. So we’re not, and please make sure you understand that. And everyone offers something different, right? Like, so I, you know, I offer parents you can come once, and I it’s kind of like college 101, and I do have families do that, like, I can afford once. Can you help us? You know, in these 90 minutes give us as much information as possible. Absolutely, I would love

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  34:44

to there are, there are IECs that work hourly, and those that have packages, yes.

 

Megan Rose  34:49

And there are some who just help with SES, and some who, and sometimes families will say, you know, I’m pretty I’m pretty strong in this. I have other, you know, I don’t need that. I need something else. Yeah.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  35:00

Well, Megan, if people are interested in learning more about how you work with families, how would they get in touch?

 

Megan Rose  35:07

Sure. So my website is college solutions, Winder mirror, which is a great way to stay in touch. And then I try to do the best job I can at De stressing families. And I think I have a fun Instagram page, also called College solutions Windermere. And you can see in that my former clients, they do a day in the life at my particular college. So you’ll find a day in the life at your social

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  35:35

media is great. Lots of free lots of free stuff to help people regardless of their budget. And I, I love that, yeah. And

 

Megan Rose  35:44

I just try to, you know, really de stress parents as much as I can. And this should be fun, you know, like, I It’s so fun for me getting to know the kids. I like to say, I’m a great hype woman. I’ll be like, You’re what, you’re a freshman. And you mean, what team you’re this, you know? And I just say, like, you know, I think my goal is for kids to see themselves through my eyes. That’s what I try like, oh my god, I just work with such amazing kids. But yeah, I mean, there’s so much free resources out there. There’s so many great social media pages, of course, Lisa’s podcast. And, you know, again, people get into this profession to help, so don’t be to reach out and ask for help.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  36:19

Well, Megan, thank you for coming on again. This has been fantastic. Gives parents, families lots to think about on how they can best resource given their own situation. Thanks, Megan,

 

Megan Rose  36:31

thank you, Lisa, for all you do. Thanks everyone.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  36:39

Thank you to Megan for an insightful discussion. You know this conversation highlights how valuable your school counselor’s role is in your teen’s college journey. One simple way to strengthen that relationship is for your teen, not you parents to send a brief email sharing something specific your teen is excited about or is accomplished. This helps your counselor get to know your teen better, and shows that you really value their partnership. And if sending emails to adults is intimidating to your student, well that’s completely normal, and I’ve got a free resource for you to grab. It’ll teach your student good email techniques that improve response rates too. It’s found at flourish coaching co.com forward, slash, email, I’ll list it in the show notes, along with an additional resource to compliment your school counselors guidance. It’s my free on demand video how to guide your teen to choose the right major college and career without pinning themselves into a corner, missing crucial deadlines or risking choices you both regret. You can access it all at Laura’s coaching co.com, forward slash video. If today’s episode resonated with you, please share it with the parent navigating this journey. Also your shares follows. Ratings and reviews help us reach more families and support more teens and launching confidently into their future. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you again soon on College and Career Clarity, where we turn your student from overwhelmed and confused to motivated, clear and confident about their future. You.