Lea Washington, whose son Julian is graduating from LCHS in May, shared some terrific organizing strategies that worked for her family over the course of the year:
Keep it Visible: “I posted documents on a closet door in our family room so we can see due dates and to-dos in one place,” said Lea. “It has sparked conversations from Julian without my prompting.” (see photo)
Tracking Scholarship Applications: Lea created this Excel spreadsheet to share with Pathways to Success families who want to track scholarship applications. She said, “I originally created the spreadsheet in Google Docs (Sheets) and shared it with my son so we can use it as a working document.” (https://www.pathwaysplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/scholarship_tracker.xlsx)
Use Google Drive: According to Lea, “Something else I did to assist my overwhelmed senior was to create a shared Google Docs ‘Scholarship” folder.” In the folder, Lea scanned/uploaded/saved/placed the following:
- Letters of recommendation (Letters of Rec folder)
- Midyear transcript (Transcript folder)
- SAT score report (SAT folder)
- FAFSA student aid report (FAFSA folder)
- Essay documents (Essay folder)
“We can both access this information from anywhere with internet connectivity and Julian know exactly where to find critical documents,” Lea said. “I am the owner of the folder, so I control what goes in/out, which helps avoids accidental deletions.”
Thanks so much for sharing your strategies, Lea!
