HOLLY POND — High school seniors just returned from their summer vacations earlier this month, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early for them to start preparing for college and exploring their options on how to pay for further education. 

Holly Pond High School Counselor Karen Rowell hosted a seminar Monday night and discussed some of the strategies and opportunities that are available for students and parents who need some help paying for college.

Rowell said she provides information to students throughout the school year, but thought it would also be good to have a chance to sit down with parents and work with them to make sure students have a chance to succeed.

“This is a partnership,” she said. “It’s parents, students and myself working together to help them get to that goal at the end of the year.”

The seminar discussed topics such as how to calculate and compare college tuitions, understanding the FAFSA application and developing strategies to simplify the application process to make everything less stressful.

Rowell also spoke about scholarships and how her school web page has more than 170 links to opportunities that are available for students.

She said the key to scholarship applications is for a student to apply for as many as they can as early as they can, because many of them they are very competitive.

“It’s going to take a lot of time and energy, but it’s committing to doing something that you know will hopefully pay off for you in the end,” she said. 

One thing that is important to remember is that this is not a process that can only be completed by the student, the parent or the counselor, but it is a partnership between all three, Rowell said.

“It’s all three of us working together to help them come up with a plan that’s suitable for them,” she said.

For Chris and Melinda Campbell, who have already started the college application process for their daughter, the seminar was helpful in providing more information about some of the opportunities that are available for her.

“It’ll help us get organized and there’s a ton of resources to look at for scholarships,” Melinda said.

She also said she was happy that Holly Pond was able to provide this extra assistance to students and parents.

“Any extra information that a school can provide after hours is always extremely helpful,” she said. “And we’re thankful.”