The idea of helping students on their journey into college and career, and helping kids decide their futures, is what excites Ms. Dorsch most about starting her new job as Desert Mountain’s new College and Career Center administrator. 

“I’m really excited, said Ms. Dorsch, who replaces Ms. Loftus, who left her position at the end of last year. “I missed being around the kids and the idea of being there to help everybody on their exciting journey into college and career, and helping kids figure out what it is that they want to do”

Ms. Dorsch attended Bradley University and received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and a masters degree in human resources, then worked in human resources at Zeller Plastic in Illinois for about 10 years. 

She later had kids of her own, and took a break from working for a while; during this break, she volunteered and substitute taught for the Scottsdale Unified School District, was a cheerleading coach at Desert Canyon Middle School, and was also involved in the district’s PTO.

“This position came open, and it was perfect, because my kids went to Desert Mountain”

Ms. Dorsch feels comfortable coming into her new position because she knows a lot of the staff and her son graduated from DM in 2019.

Ms. Dorsch also knows some of the students from this year’s senior and junior class, so she said that this will be a really easy transition for her.

‘Mask to Mask’

Starting the new job during Enhanced Distance Learning, when she couldn’t meet the students personally was a challenge. 

“I can’t wait to meet everybody face to face, or mask to mask”

Ms. Dorsch feels that she is very approachable and hopes that all students will be comfortable with going to talk to her.

The College and career center provides lots of very helpful resources and information for students looking to attend college or launch a career.

Ms. Dorsh organizes the college visits, usually the bigger and well known colleges come to her asking for appointments; otherwise she will set appointments up with the others.

She also provides different workshops for completing college applications, writing college essays, writing resumes, and others. 

Ms. Dorsch communicates a lot of information about colleges and careers with the students through weekly emails, which include important upcoming dates, so students are aware of college and testing deadlines.Students can also find a lot of the same information and more on the schools College and Career website: https://www.susd.org/Page/1761.

“I love meeting with kids, it’s the most fun thing that I get to do,” she said.

Dorsch would like students to know if they ever need to make an appointment with her, she will do everything she can to make that happen, and help the student out, whether it’s a virtual appointment or back at school.

Applying to colleges during a pandemic

This year, applying to colleges looks a little bit different, because of to Covid-19 and its different restrictions–which has limited students’ ability to visit colleges, earn merit scholarships, and take standardized tests. 

Ms. Dorsch recommends that students first identify schools of interest, then check their websites for their dates and deadlines. 

If colleges have any deadlines or requirements for recommendation letters, students should provide enough time to fill and submit applications. She also recommends to not provide schools more recommendation letters than what is asked, because in most cases the colleges won’t read all of them, instead only reading the amount required. Colleges are busy, she said, and must review in some cases thousands of applications. 

A lot of schools are not requiring the ACT or SAT this year, but some of them are considering them for merit scholarships; Ms. Dorsch recommends that students take these tests so that they improve their chances to earn merit scholarships.

Students also can retake the test for a better score. Dorsch said students should consider test preparation; test prep books or in person classes can help students prepare.