With seniors making college decisions and receiving news of scholarships, the College and Career Resource Center (CCRC) plans to host an event to offer multiple Carmel Education Foundation (CEF) scholarships to students, according to CCRC coordinator Melinda Stephan.

Stephan said, “The (CEF) offers about 100 scholarships to Carmel seniors every year based on donors who have provided scholarship monies, and they are in the process right now of making those selections to see who will receive those scholarships.”

According to Stephan, the CCRC will host a Community Scholarship Night at which these scholarships will be presented. Stephan said the event will be occurring in person this year, adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.

“(Community Scholarship Night) is only open to those students who are in their families who are receiving a scholarship, and especially this year because we have to keep the capacity of 50% or less,” Stephan said. “So we actually have to limit the number of guests, but we’re definitely going to record (the event).”

Aside from planning Community Scholarship Night, Stephan said the CCRC continues to promote career opportunities, particularly as many students search for summer jobs.

Stephan said, “(In) the last month, lots of people (have been) looking for summer work and so our administrators in student services decided (to) do the job fair over several weeks during lunch, (bringing) in three or four employers at a time.”

Although the job fair is planned by student services and not the CCRC, Stephan said she helps to promote the job fair as well as other job opportunities via social media and Canvas.

Sophomore Jennifer Zhao said she was able to attend the job fair during lunch and become aware of local opportunities.

According to Zhao, “The job fair helped me discover what opportunities were available for me over the summer. It was convenient because it not only allowed me to learn about what there is but directly apply for jobs as well.”

Along with helping students find job opportunities, Stephan said the CCRC continues to provide college preparedness resources. According to Stephan, the CCRC advisers are currently focused on assisting juniors with understanding the process of college applications.

 “(Juniors) are seeing the horizon and understanding that summer is going to be a great time to start really diving into the college search and application process and they’re trying to get help with understanding that process (and) maybe building a list,” Stephan said.

In order to help juniors through the process of shortlisting colleges and beginning applications, Stephan said the CCRC plans to create a Canvas course and offer help sessions in person to answer any questions.

According to Stephan, “(The) idea is they would go through this virtual boot camp (on Canvas)… And then August 1 is when most of the applications open, (so) if they want help with application questions or if they’ve drafted an essay, they can come in before (the) school (year starts).”