A school guidance counselor undoubtedly plays one of the most important roles in a high schooler’s life. While working with them to plan their academics and coursework, a school counselor is the person a student can always go to in order to get answers to all their questions. The Union would like to recognize the hard work of the counselors in their persistent efforts in keeping students informed about keeping open communication with them in order to ensure a path of success.
Our guidance counselors are exceptional in regards to the long lasting relationships and hard work that they put in to ensuring the success of their students. From their first meetings freshmen, the counselors build connections by getting to know them, providing support for their socioemotional wellbeing, and helping them prepare in their academic pathways. Throughout the years, guidance counselors and other important advisors, such as the college and career advisor, repeatedly communicate with their students, either online or by visiting classrooms.These recurring interactions ensure students can voice their concerns about graduation, community service, course planning, and feel more comfortable and confident in school.
The four-year plan that counselors establish at the beginning of freshman year is quite helpful and a useful resource for MHS students to refer back to while deciding courses and career pathways. Even with students’ changing interests about courses, subjects, and other academic classes, the counselors are usually very flexible with deciding classes and adjusting the course pathways to fit the changing needs of the students.
In addition, our counselors have become increasingly proactive by delivering news of requirements, deadlines, and in general graduation requirements to both juniors and seniors in classroom visits. In junior year, the counselors come into English classes to talk to students about how many courses they need and what credits they need to complete in order to graduate, also providing space to ask questions about the college applications process and financial aid information. By providing an open forum and valuable resources early on, the counselors ensure that students are getting all the credits they need so that they can walk the stage at graduation. If certain credits are not met, the counselors encourage students to set up meetings and offer alternate options such as taking summer courses or attending night school. In addition, the counselors also come together to have senior meetings with their students to talk about senior attendance, pledges, and graduation procedures.
Meetings like these create great positive impact upon the student population. The check-ins and reassurances provided by the counselors allow the students to feel more comfortable and confident in their schoolwork and pathway, while allowing them to also evaluate how they are doing and if they are meeting the requirements. Workshops on FAFSA and college also provide helpful recourses to make college planning less stressful. Compared to other schools where frequent counselor check-ins do not occur, we can experience a better outcome in terms of our college and career pathway and process.
We, The Union, would like to commend the guidance counselors for their hard work and dedication to the success of the students. We appreciate the time and effort they put into each student’s academic and high school path, and recognize them as important contributors to student success at MHS.