Cue the balloons and confetti!  We’re celebrating April Fool’s Day!

Well, actually, here at College Parent Central we’re celebrating our anniversary, or birthday, or blogiversary. We’ve officially made it to a decade.

It was April 1, 2009 (somehow April Fool’s Day seemed fitting) when we launched ourselves into the unknown and began College Parent Central.  We hoped that as parents accompanied their students on their college journey we might be able to help them understand their role and how best to support their students.  We thought we had a pretty good idea, but we didn’t know what to expect from this venture.

Ten years later we’re still going.  We still believe that there’s much for parents to learn and understand in order to help their students prepare for, transition to, and succeed in college. We’ve been pleased, over the last decade, to hear from so many parents who have found our information helpful.

If you’ve landed on College Parent Central, and you’re reading this, we hope that you find what you need here, too. Know that you are joining the over three million parents who have also visited College Parent Central over the years. We’re grateful for the many parents, educators, and counselors who have shared our information with others, who have provided helpful feedback, and who have taught us so much over the years.

Our purpose

It is always a good idea, from time to time, to reflect on your roots.  Each time we look back to the purpose that drove us to launch College Parent Central, we reaffirm that our basic principles haven’t changed.

• We believe that parents are partners in their child’s education from pre-school through college.
• We believe that parents want to be involved in their child’s college experience.
• We believe that parents have a place in their child’s college experience.
• We believe that many parents are unsure how to be involved in their child’s college experience.
• We believe that many parents need to better understand college today in order to support their student.

Our body of knowledge

A milestone anniversary is an occasion to reflect on what we’ve done.  Although it has developed slowly over the years – one article at a time, in retrospect we realize we’ve produced a lot.

College Parent Central now has over 630 articles.  That’s a lot of information, and much of it is “evergreen” content.  Sure, a few articles were relevant at the time and then soon became old news, but we’ve eliminated many of those. Most of our articles are solid information that doesn’t change – even if some are a few years old.  We have forty book reviews alone that still point to good reading.

We’ve worked hard in the past several years to make our information as easily accessible as possible – because there can be a lot to work through.  Whether you are a high school parent anticipating college, a new college parent, or a parent of a student who is struggling, use the tabs at the top of the page to take you to just the information that you need.  Or use the “By Category” tab to find articles on specific topics.

And, of course, if you haven’t yet done so, sign up for our newsletter (below) to get updates and additional information.

Moving forward

Ten years ago, we would probably not have predicted that we’d still be here, still finding new things to learn and share, and still reaching out to more and more parents a decade later.  We’re hesitant to predict what’s ahead.

We look forward to continuing to connect with and support parents as they enter the college parent journey, and even earlier as they think about preparing themselves and their student for the transition.

The world of college and college students and their parents has changed a lot in ten years, and it often feels as though the rate of that change is accelerating. The pressing issues of today may be forgotten in a year or two as we all face new issues.  As students in the classroom change, parenting changes as well.  We hope to be here to explore new issues along with you.

Thank you

If you’ve read this far, thanks for indulging us in a bit of self-congratulation.  We love hearing from and working with college parents, and we believe that this work is important. Thank you for allowing us to join you on this journey.

If you’d like to give us a birthday gift, leave a comment below and tell us a topic you’d like to see us discuss.  We can’t promise we’ll be able to do it all, but we’d like to know what’s on your mind.