Summer time

Oh my! I have not posted in a MINUTE.

The end of the school year can get pretty hectic for a Guidance Counselor, especially a senior Counselor. I had to see my little babies off through graduation and into college. Class of 2013, I'm going to miss you a whole lot! But we had an amazing graduation ceremony - and Tracy Brown killed that keynote speech!! She is really an incredible woman and I'm very excited to work with her more next school year. (What's up, GEMSS?!)

But until school starts up again, IT'S SUMMER TIME!! If you're in summer school at Curtis for any reason, try to find me and say hello! I'll be here for a lot of the summer (not everyday, though.).

If you're not sweating it out at Curtis for summer school, there are lots of things you can be doing with your time this summer that would be productive. Here are just a couple of volunteer work ideas:

• Go to http://www.dosomething.org/women and put in your cell phone number. When you participate in the text messages, Kiva.org will donate $25 to a woman in a poorer country to start up a business. Free for you and helps others!
• You can actually explore www.dosomething.org for lots of different volunteer activities. Some of them are text/email/online-based, and some of them are hands-on in your community. Look around!
• Staten Island University Hospital is always looking for volunteers of all ages. Read the requirements and call the number listed on the page here: http://www.siuh.edu/For-Community/Volunteer-Opportunities.aspx
• Staten Islanders are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy and could use all the help they can get. Visit Staten Island Recovers for info on volunteering time to the relief effort: https://statenisland.recovers.org/
• Volunteers of America has some listings for Staten Island volunteer opportunities: http://www.voa-gny.org/Get-Involved/Volunteer-2/Volunteer/Staten-Island-Volunteer-Opportunities.html
• There are lots of local businesses that are always looking for volunteers. SI Parent has a nice listing of places that you could get in touch with: http://www.siparent.com/volunteer_opportunities.php

For upcoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors, summer is a really nice time to visit college campuses. There are going to be a lot less students around the campus, but you may get a more personalized tour of the school and see different areas that you might not otherwise see on a packed, busy school day! Are you going on vacation? See if there are any schools in the area you're going to and put a couple hours aside to visit! I know I know, how exciting that would make your vacation!

I'll try to post some more summer tips throughout the summer.

-Ms. Miller