College Planning from A to Z : Seminar at JVB Preksha Meditation Center
By Vani Jain
HOUSTON: As part of community outreach, JVB Houston Center organized a workshop on Virtuous Character, 21st Century Skills, and College Planning from A to Z for the 2nd time. The event was held on Sunday, Nov 15 inside the JVB’s Pyramid Hall and was conducted by Peter Han, the founder of College Planning A to Z, a full service college planning advisory firm. The seminar was targeted for high school students and their parents. About 50 people attended this highly informative workshop. The objective of this 2 hour seminar was to share as much information as possible to help families find, select and afford colleges that best match their children in near future.
Anusha Gandhi, a 12th grader and JVB youth council member was the Emcee of the program. She welcomed the community members with a short speech. Han opened up the session with information on what it takes to get into college today including the financial aid system and how it works; how to maximize student’s potential to receive scholarships, grants and other forms of merit-aid; importance of SAT & ACT tests and how colleges value them; and what the more selective colleges really want to see on a student’s application. He highlighted that making the right choice from the start results in more positive outcomes for students and financial savings for parents.
Furthermore, Han discussed 3 big mistakes made by families in college planning. His presentation included an informational timeline for high school students and parents regarding the activities to focus on in different grades in their high school career as well as important deadlines, optimum number of college applications, time and expense of applications, resumes, essays and interviews. He went over the 10 questions that audience had e-mailed prior to the session including, Public vs. Private colleges, Profit vs. Non- Profit, Large vs. Small colleges, and life afterwards. He explained how one must be and willing to collaborate with others in order to lead a successful life.
His presentation was extremely informational, educational, and inspirational, and audience was very engaged and interested throughout. After his presentation, Han stayed past his time to discuss and answer specific questions from audience and even did a one- on- one consulting with individual families. This workshop was organized by JVB youth council Anusha Gandhi, Neha Daga & Ashish Sacheti with help from Senior class at JVB Gyanshala Udai Jain, Neer Jain, Vani Jain and Manya Jain.
In closing, Neer Jain did the vote of thanks and Udai Jain presented Han a Holiday gift basket as a token of appreciation. (If you would like to receive additional details on Peter Han, or a copy of the presentation, please e-mail Pramod Bengani at info@jvbhouston.org)
The JVB Preksha Meditation Center conducts regular Preksha Meditation sessions which is the practice of purifying our emotions, consciousness and realizing our own self. Mediation augurs attitudinal change, behavioral modification and integrated development of one’s personality. Also at JVB’s Gyanshala, We value our intellectual capital, and nurture it through a perfect blend, of the traditional as well as contemporary ways and means, for the comprehensive development, of the kids personality.
For more info, please visit www.Jvbhouston.org or you can reach us @ 281-596-9642.