DAPHNE, Ala. — Bayside senior Dorothy Griffith and junior Ian Shields recently traveled to Cincinnati for a national meeting of Monster’s Making It Count Student Advisory Council. Bayside college counselor and Making It Count Educators Advisory Board member Mary Ann Willis accompanied the students for the joint EAB/Student Advisory Council Meeting.

Two students from eligible schools were selected to participate in the national meeting. Over the course of the meeting, Griffith and Shields, along with students from Boston; Miami, Fla.; Milford, Mich; Dallas; and Washington, D.C., shared their thoughts about various aspects of the Making It Count programs, including how well speakers connected with their audiences, the relevance of material presented and a variety of other topics.

“It was a good chance to interact with students from other parts of the country and to learn valuable skills that I can use in the future,” Griffith said. “We attended workshops on public speaking and confidence building and Pat O’Brien, co-founder of Making It Count, gave a very informative presentation on networking.”

“I felt like I really did something, like they might actually change things because of our opinions,” Shields said.

The students also participated in a group project where they had to devise a Web tool that would be useful to high school students. The Web tools were judged based on originality, functionality/usability, relevance to academic/career success, marketing approach and how to engage return users.