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PCHS helps students apply for college

Mobley urges students to study, stay in school

By Kristin Pitts
Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 HERTFORD —

Stephanie Knight looked a little puzzled as she and her son peered over a computer screen in the Perquimans County High School library.

The pair had been filling out college applications for nearly half an hour, but hit what could have been a stopping point when they reached an oddly worded question.

Rather than hit the end button, Knight gestured to one of the 25 volunteers making their way through rows of students and parents applying to colleges.

Wednesday marked the third year that PCHS has offered to help its seniors as they go through the often confusing process of applying to colleges. Victor Eure, the Perquimans County Schools’ technology director, helped organize the event.

He says the event helps give students the extra push to think about their education after high school.

“The goal is to give that one on one support to work through those applications,” Eure said.

Of the more than 80 students who spent Wednesday morning applying to colleges, many chose to do so through the College Foundation of North Carolina’s Web site, which allows students to apply to multiple universities with relatively few extra steps.

This year proved to be the school’s biggest turnout for the event, which happened in the middle of National Education Week, and on a day during which many colleges and universities waived their application fee.

That extra incentive was all Josh Chestnutt, a senior, needed to start applying. Chestnutt arrived Wednesday morning with his parents to apply to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, East Carolina University, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

Chestnutt said that the volunteers were “an abundance of help,” and that the morning proved to be a good opportunity for students and parents to start working on a process that may have otherwise been put off.

“People are busy, and (applying) is on the back-burner, and they bring it to your attention,” Chestnutt said.

Outside the library doors, National Education Week was being celebrated in other ways. State Rep. Annie Mobley, D-Hertford, toured the high school, stopping in a few classrooms to talk to students about her duties and the importance of education.

“It’s important that you learn what you study, and that you stay in school,” Mobley told a history class.

As she spoke, that effort was being carried out in the school’s library, where students and a few parents continued to fill out information, and ask questions.

“They have extra helping hands,” Knight said, as her son worked on applying to four schools. “It’s very helpful.”

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