By Ramatoulaye  Goloco,

Patterson High School held its annual door decorating contest in November. The theme of this year’s contest was colleges and universities. Each homeroom chose a different college, wrote information about that college (GPA requirements, etc.), and posted some pictures about the college on the front of their door to show how precious those colleges are.

Some of  the teachers chose to feature the college that they attended. For example,Mr. Wagoner’s room put up pictures and information from Virginia University, because he graduated from there. “It’s great place”, Mr. Wagoner said. Mr. Scott’s choice was his undergraduate school, the University of Baltimore, while Mr. Gagne decided to use his son’s college to celebrate his recent graduation. “My son just graduated from Morgan State with a degree in civil engineering”, Mr. Gagne explained.

The goal of this contest was to encourage higher education, post-high school.”Statistics’ show that when students pursue higher education they make more money and have more career options available to them”, explained Ms. McIntosh, a guidance counselor for the school. “The College Door Decorating Contest’s purpose was to showcase colleges and universities across the United States and to educate students on the requirements needed to be accepted into college. Surprisingly, many of our students do not understand the requirements needed to be accepted to college and wait until it is too late to increase their GPA and study for standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT.”

The door decorating contest is just one of many activities the School Counseling Department sponsored during College and Career Readiness Month. The school hopes that these activities will help prepare Patterson students to pursue and achieve their dreams after high school.

FIRST PLACE WINNERS:

 Class of 2018: Ms. O’Brien

Class of 2017: Ms. Tuballa

Class of 2016: Mr. Baron

Class of 2015: Ms. Rivera

Life Skills: Ms. Clark

 

(Photos: Jamal Artis and Rama Goloco, Patterson Press)