BHS Adds College & Career Readiness Advisor

A new program at Bourbon High School is aiming to prepare students for postsecondary education or careers through a dedicated advisor.

Trish Lewis has transitioned to the role of college and career advisor after teaching English at BHS for more than 30 years. 

The position is through rootEd Alliance and is a collaborative, philanthropic effort that focuses on students in rural America.

Crawford County R-1 received a grant to implement the program, which is set to last three years, but Lewis is hopeful it will continue on.

BHS is just one of 15 rootEd schools in Missouri and Tennessee. The program launched in 2018 and prior to 2022, supported 3,000 rural students in those states.

In her role, Lewis makes contact with seniors to establish what their post-high school goals are and work to provide them a pathway, whether it’s college, military or a career.

“College and career readiness all fell under the counselor (Michelle Ray), but she has other duties to deal with,” Lewis said. 

Lewis can focus on helping students figure out their next step, something she did informally in previous years, but now is fully dedicated to.

She knows the challenges that students can face, whether it’s finding scholarships, filling out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or even trying to make the best financial choice.

“A student can receive a scholarship to a school that looks really good on paper, but that scholarship might last just one year,” she said, adding that she tries to steer them in a direction that will get them a good education but not load them up with tons of future debt.

The school year is nearly a month old and Lewis said she has already established contact with seniors, plus a few juniors. 

She’s organizing trips to college fair and arranging for job shadowing.

“We have students who think they want to work in health care and we are setting up job shadowing at Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital,” Lewis said. “We have one student that is considering a career in law and we have them set up with a lawyer.” 

The efforts to increase higher education among rural students came after a study showed that they are less likely to pursue it compared to urban and suburban students.

In Missouri, around 70% of school districts are considered rural and while those students graduate at a higher rate than the national average, only about one-third of 18 to 24 year olds enroll in a two or four-year college.

For urban and suburban students, that number is nearly 50%.

rootEd launched in Missouri in 2018-19 across six idistricts in Cape Girardeau, Marshfield, Lebanon, Popular Bluff, Union and Warrenton.

rootEd is continuing to collect data, but found that in the first year, 72% of seniors in those districts applied to a postsecondary program or completed the FAFSA.

According to rootEd, 20% of students said they would not attend college if not for their advisor. Another 58% said their advisor influenced their choice of a postsecondary program.