CMP Tutoring Session 1

Today I had my first consultation today with a high school senior from Chesterfield County.  The goal of the session was to start brainstorming for a college application essay.  Prior to our session, the students had time to freewrite after given prompts about things they care about, injustices they see in their community, and other open ended topics.  With my tutoree, we discussed the ideas that she wrote about to have her further develop her ideas through explanation.  We then went through the handouts about the different types of essay questions that colleges ask for as found on the College Board website- The "You" Question, The "Why Us" Question, and The "Creative" Question.  I further explained to her that the college admissions staff is looking for an essay that is entertaining and makes the applicant different from all the other applicants.  When we got to the question about career goals, I told her that I found that one difficult because even as a sophomore in college majoring in Business Administration, I do not know what specific career I want.  She began to tell me that she wants to be a nurse in the pediatric department.  I continued the conversation by asking her what specifically she likes about working with children and what led her to that career goal.  In her high school years she works in a Big Brother/Sister program with troubled teens, babysits in her community,  is part of a peer mentor program with her school, and plays on a co-ed soccer team at her high school.  We put those thoughts on the back burner while we talked about other ideas, like her response to Elon University's inquiry about how she sees an ethical problem in her community through race discrimination.  Returning to her thoughts about her career goals, she decided that she wanted to incorporate what other people say about her generous personality into her response.  We discussed how the programs that she is a part of exemplify her nurturing spirit and her motivation to try her hardest.  I asked her to freewrite about what we discussed, but she seemed a bit lost about what point to start.  To guide her more, I made up a prompt for her: "What are your career goals and what experiences and personal qualities have driven you to this goal?".  She wrote nonstop until the three-minute warning was announced.  As she wrote, I looked at the prompts for the Nursing and Health Sciences departments for UVa and Georgetown.  They both similarly asked about experiences that guided the applicant to their career choice.  When there were a few minutes left, we discussed the possibility of her applying to VCU and asked the director if she knew about the VCU's Nursing School application.  We discussed that the student search the VCU website for more information.  At the end of the session, the student asked me what I wrote my college application essays on.  I am glad that I can use my past experiences writing college essays to help her while becoming a better writing consultant.