This year, the Glenbard South Counseling Department launched the Brown Bag Lunch program. It was created for seniors who intend to go into college and gave them a chance to hear about and ask specific questions about college applications, scholarships, financial aid and Naviance during their lunch time.

To be a part of the Brown Bag Lunch, the Counseling Department said that students must sign up on a sheet outside their office.

“Brown Bags piggyback off of the Choices program,” said Jamie Frodyma, a guidance counselor at Glenbard South.

Already, the Choices program has had counselors talk to each grade once a year about the students’ four year plans, career focus, appropriate post-secondary schooling and the college application process. The Brown Bag Lunch program has hoped to answer all of the questions students may have had that have not necessarily been covered in Choices. Although Brown Bag and Choices have been similar, Brown Bag has aimed to answer post-secondary education questions on a more frequent individual basis. Senior Kathleen McMillion said, “Brown bag lunch was a good way to answer a few of my questions concerning prospective colleges.”

Brown Bag Lunch has targeted both first generation students–students whose parents did not go to college — and regular students. So far, Brown Bag has offered four sessions to both groups of students. Brown Bag has tried to make contact with all students “and each of those contacts are critical to that particular student’s success,” said guidance counselor Gloria Chapa-Resendez.

Since 97% of Glenbard South students have been accepted to college in the past, and 87% actually have attended, the counseling department’s focus has been more on helping students through the application procedure instead of just encouraging students to attend college. “We are hoping for kids to start that process earlier so they can get more financial assistance,” said Frodyma.

Soon, the Brown Bag Lunch program will be expected to be open to the whole school. The counseling department planned for there to be Brown Bag Lunch sessions for seniors this first half of the fall semester, freshman second half, juniors first half of the spring semester and then sophomore during the second half. The freshmen in attendance will learn about their transcripts and other important tools in high school. Next, juniors will be afforded the opportunity to ask questions about the ACT, the application process and how to choose the right colleges. Sophomores will also hear about transcripts, discuss their career interests, ACT prep and Naviance. Chapa-Resendez also said, “The idea is to affect the student culture where post-secondary education is a given for all of our students.”

So far, there has been moderate attendance to Brown Bag. Chapa-Resendez finally said, “Some topics were more popular than others; however, we were still able to make contact with at least a dozen students each time.”

“[The Brown Bag Lunch is] a great opportunity for students to get some specific questions answered in a small group setting,” stated Frodyma.