Counselors Help Aspirations Lab Stay open for Another Year by Rebekah Fleck

For those who are not in high school, when you hear ‘Aspirations Lab’, you probably don’t know what that is. In years past, students can remember having access to the Aspirations Lab whenever they needed help with things such as college applications, studying for SAT’s, or doing things such as filling out the FAFSA. Things took a change for the Aspirations Lab this year when it’s lost it’s grant from F.A.M.E, causing it to lose it’s yearly Aspirations Lab coordinator, and leaving it useless.

Luckily for students, the Guidance Staff at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) did not want the students to lose such a beneficial item. Because of this, the Guidance Staff decided to take the Aspirations Lab under their wing and make is accessible to students for 2 days during the week, Tuesdays and Fridays.

In the past years that the Aspirations Lab was open, it had one person in their that was in charge of running it, known as the Aspirations Lab Coordinator that was mentioned earlier. Because their was no funding for one, the Guidance Counselors, Rachel Paddock, Kevin O’Reilly, Amy Peterson, Stephanie Goss, and Nancy McClean now rotate running the Aspirations Lab on the days that it is open.

Paddock says that although it hasn’t seen a lot of action yet this year, she is confident that as things such as college and financial aid creep around the corner that the Aspirations Lab will see more students coming in.

Last year the Aspirations Lab coordinator was Sean Merz, who returned to OHCHS this year as a math teacher. He had a very good time running the Aspirations Lab. Merz says that he enjoyed helping students prepare for what they were planning to do after high school. He also enjoyed the fact that all of the students who walked through the doors of the Aspirations Lab were motivated in some way to learn how to do something.

Merz said, “I liked the environment of this Aspirations Lab as compared to a classroom because it was a lot more open, it was a lot more comfortable and it didn’t seem forced on any students.”

Merz had many cases last year where had the students not asked for help they would not have been able to pursue any of their dreams or pursue any of the things that they had wanted to do. Merz saw many students succeed and grow in the process of using the Aspirations lab. The Guidance Staff is hoping that was Merz saw last year will be the case this year as well, that many students will succeed, grow and be able to pursue their dreams.