East High Leads the State During College Application Campaign
Principal Steve Johns introduces Governor Terry Branstad to sign a proclamation commending schools for participating in the Iowa College Application Campaign.
What better place than the library at East High School for Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s official proclamation this morning commending all of the Iowa high schools that were part of this year’s Iowa College Application Campaign?
Not only is it in the same neighborhood as the governor’s office, but East racked up some of the most impressive numbers among the 33 participating schools across the state. Three hundred and sixty Scarlet seniors, or 80% of the 455 members of the Class of 2014, completed at least one college application during the campaign, more than any other participating school could boast, and many of them represent the first generation in their respective families with collegiate ambitions.
“Some students told me they wouldn’t have applied for college if they didn’t do it as a group,” said East counselor Roxanne Kucharski. “They said it helped to be guided through the process because they didn’t know how to go about it as first-generation college applicants in their families.”
The Iowa College Application Campaign is part of a national effort to inform students about the college application process. The purpose is to build awareness and encourage high school students, especially those from underserved populations, to complete college applications during their senior year. The Iowa College Student Aid Commission partnered with GEAR UP Iowa and the Iowa Association for College Admission Counseling to implement the statewide campaign throughout the month of October.
In fact, all five comprehensive high schools in Des Moines participated in the College Application College, and in all five more than 50% of the seniors completed at least one college application last month.
Governor Branstad is no stranger to winning campaigns and this one dovetails with his administration’s emphasis on education reform. “This is a crucial step in helping Iowa students overcome barriers to higher education,” Branstad said.
When the formalities were over Governor Branstad invited questions from the throng of seniors sardined into the sunlit library and a lively quasi-press conference broke out where moments before a ceremonial recitation full of “whereas” and “therefore” had been.
The emerging citizens respectfully peppered Iowa’s longest-serving governor with thoughtful expressions of concern about issues central to their futures: college costs, fine arts vs. STEM career paths, economic development, governmental gridlock…
Branstad seemed pleased by their engagement and waded in like he’d been invited to join a rousing game of conversational rugby. When someone asked who or what first inspired him to get into politics he lit up. He must have feared no one would ask.
“My 8th grade government teacher in Forest City,” he responded. “Lura Sewick was her name. She had one blue eye and one brown and she taught us all what she called the three R’s’ of government: rights, respect and responsibility. I never forgot her. I even went to her 90th birthday party many years later after I’d become governor.”
He went on to recall how she used to personally go and register the new voters in town when they came of age, both to welcome them into the fullness of their citizenship and remind them of the obligations that came with it. For a moment it sounded like he was passing a torch to his audience that was first passed to him when he was still in school.
East has been coming out on top in the Get Schooled Attendance Challenge in recent years and now it begins to appear that more and more who graduate from the Scarlet ranks are getting so in the habit of going to school that they can’t stop, ever after graduation.
The school district’s mission statement reads, in part: The Des Moines Public Schools Exist So That Graduates Possess the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities to Be Successful at the Next Stage of Their Lives. Lest anyone doubt that mission is being accomplished there’s an official proclamation that says otherwise. As soon as the ink dries on the governor’s signature it will be on justifiably proud display at East High School.
