January 4, 2019

 

Lesson:  Self-assessment. Engage in a self-assessment of your language, images, and associations on social media. Determine if your social media profile (and email address) is appropriate for supporting your college/career aspirations. 

  • Social Media: Engage in a self-assessment of your language, images, and associations on social media (e.g.,Facebook®, Twitter®, Instagram®, Snapchat®, YouTube®, etc.). Determine if your social media profile is appropriate for supporting your college/career aspirations and ensure that the images and language is consistent with the branding that you desire to create. Take appropriate actions to remove inappropriate images and language.
  • Email Signature: Engage in a self-assessment of your email signature. As a high school junior, you must increase your contact with colleges and and specialized programs. Many colleges track visits by potential students, whether or not students have signed up on their email distribution list, and the number of times a potential student has contacted the school. Each such contact, should be from an appropriate email address and with an email signature that effectively communicates your 'brand' or profiles 1 – 3 areas of achievement (e.g., academic, leadership, service, etc.). Your email address and email signature must be appropriate for communicating with teachers, counselors, coaches, college admissions officers, or scholarship providers. Review the sample e-mail signatures provided with this activity and develop an email signature that showcases a leadership role, activity involvement, or achievement. Accomplishments that relate to your gifts and talents should be included in your signature, together with your graduation year, high school, contact information, and any social media links showcasing athletic film, creative performances, artwork, etc.
  • Action: Review the samples and follow the instructions to create the email signature for your cell phone or Internet email account. Click here to review sample email signatures and instructions for setting up an email signature on your Yahoo, Gmail, iPhone, etc.
  • After updating your email signature, place a copy of your signature on the 'Module 5 – Narrative: My Email Signature' page of your narrative document, and send an email to your cohort facilitator or mentor.

Note: Do not take this activity likely, one student who indicated that she was her class salutatorian in her email signature was surprised to learn that, after receiving her email, a college offered her a $20,000 scholarship for being her class salutatorian.

Supplemental Reading