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As a new member of the Carolina College Advising Corps, UNC graduate Whitney McLaughlin will work at Lexington Senior and Thomasville high schools in Davidson County to help low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students apply for college and financial aid.

As a new member of the Carolina College Advising Corps, UNC graduate Whitney McLaughlin will work at Lexington Senior and Thomasville high schools in Davidson County to help low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students apply for college and financial aid.

The Carolina Advising Corps, based in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of 13 partnerships in the National College Advising Corps (also headquartered at UNC). The corps places recent Chapel Hill graduates – many of them first-generation college students themselves – as college advisers in low-income high schools across the state.

Advisers work closely with guidance counselors and other school personnel to create programs that meet the needs of the students in North Carolina high schools. Typically, an adviser works in two high schools, helping students research and apply to a broad range of two- and four-year schools, with the goal of finding the one that fits each individual best.

A 2005 Pinecrest High School graduate from Southern Pines, McLaughlin graduated from UNC in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

“One of the aspects of CCAC that first attracted me to the program was the stress on increasing college access through one-on-one interaction with students and parents,” she said. “Now, I have the opportunity to be a guide and a support system to students who have high hopes of becoming a college student.”

McLaughlin said her goals include gaining a meaningful hands-on experience working within the education system and developing effective strategies for better serving high school students.

More than 75 applicants, mostly graduates of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, competed for the eight adviser positions open for the fall, said Program Director Jennifer Cox Bell.

 The advising corps, now entering its third year, has 19 advisers serving 40 high schools in 21 counties across North Carolina. Funding for the adviser position in the Davidson County schools came from a grant from DavidsonWorks.

Whitney McLaughlin

Carolina College Advising Corps Web site: http://advisingcorps.org/page/carolina-advising-corps

Carolina College Advising Corps contact: Jennifer Cox Bell, (919) 843-7286, jcoxbell@admissions.unc.edu

News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu

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