Counselors key to high school and beyond

School guidance counselors are critical during a student’s high school career. They take care of scheduling and testing, provide emotional counsel and make sure every student is on track for life after high school.

A guidance counselor’s main objective is to help a student graduate and prepare them to continue to do well later on in life, beyond the high school’s doors. Counselors ensure students are meeting credit requirements. Then the most immediate matters for teenagers after high school are going to college and focusing on a vocation. Therefore, counselors also try to accommodate the student’s interests, including courses that can prove useful during job searches. Even the students who do not wish to continue on to college can find help in the counseling office and be directed into programs that will lead them right into professions as soon as they graduate. For those who do wish to pursue further schooling, guidance counselors arrange for colleges to visit the high school and provide numerous brochures from universities, colleges and scholarships in their offices.

The former rule of thumb concerning the appropriate time to start thinking about college was to begin in the junior year of high school. But as competition to be accepted into colleges and jobs increases, the more intelligent choice is to start even earlier.

Colony High School sophomore Meagan Vance says, “A good time to start (talking to a counselor about college) would probably be about second semester as a sophomore, so you can start getting a good idea of where you want to go and what colleges expect from you. Right now would actually be a good time to do that.”

Nearly every student will have to talk to their counselor at some point during their school life, whether to sort out scheduling mishaps or the often daunting prospect of applying for and deciding on a college. In large schools like Colony High, which currently has a population of roughly 1,250 students, the task of connecting with and guiding so many young adults can be a challenge in itself. To guarantee student success, three counselors are employed, and the student population is split between the Colony High counselors Kristin Langhoff, Becky Krupa and Kim Howell.

Langhoff says, “It would be nice if we could have smaller amounts of students to work with, but at the same time, different students have different needs.”

Each of the Colony High counselors has about 400 students to look over, which limits connecting with every individual to some extent, but as Ms. Langhoff says, not all students have a need to meet with their counselor every day, which allows the students that do need counseling more time. Counseling is available at any time during the school day, and a student can put in a request to meet with the counselor and normally be granted a meeting within 24 hours.

When it comes to colleges, Langhoff says, “It certainly doesn’t hurt to already be thinking about college as a freshman, but by junior year the student should be seriously looking into where they want to go.”

She also adds that by senior year, students should be decided about their college. Scholarships are also best taken care of as soon as possible, due to varying deadlines.

Counselors can provide advice, consultation, and steer students in the right direction to graduate and have a successful life. They help students with their emotional, academic and future lives. As a school resource, high school guidance counselors can prove an invaluable yet easily accessible adviser for students throughout high school.

Eva Colberg is a sophomore at Colony High School.