“Anyone who walks in here, I want them to leave driven,” college and career coordinator Jasmine Ash said.
Starting this month, there is a new face in the College and Career Center, and she plans to help students reach their future goals.
“My goal is to get more engagement,” Ash said.
Ash started on Feb. 3 and has been taking time to get to know the students here at Lakewood.
She is also making strides to increase student engagement with the college and career center. This includes helping them complete their FAFSA and conducting check-ins for students in the Take Stock in Children program.
She is mentoring nine students for Take Stock in Children, which is a Florida-based non-profit that provides mentorship and scholarships to low-income, at-risk public-school students from grades sixth to 12.
Before she was a college and Career coordinator, she had a similar job at St. Petersburg College on their Trio EOC Program, which is the college equivalent of the job she has here.
“Being here, I can actually build a relationship with the students and see them graduate,” Ash said.
Ash explained that at her previous job, she didn’t really have the chance to get to know students. Here at Lakewood, she gets more of a one-on-one with each student who comes into her room, which lets her build a relationship with them.
Ash wants to allow students to achieve success after High School, as she didn’t have a resource like this when she was in high school.
