Colorful banners, brochures, and infographics are just some of the handfuls of materials the College and Career Center provides for students to make the college process less stressful. Yet, despite these resources and an open door, most students have never set foot in the room.
The College and Career Center, which has existed at PHS for over two decades, remains a somewhat less popular amenity amongst students. It’s a place that most students never visit, and yet it helps support one of the most talked about subjects on campus: college.
“There’s a lot of overlap between the counselors and College and Career Center,” PHS Counselor Chris Hartford said, who has been a counselor at Piedmont for over 20 years.
But while the counselors help with basic questions about schedules, courses and graduation requirements,, the College and Career Center is specialized for helping students with specific post-high school questions, essay help, and school-specific questions.
While the College and Career Center itself may not be heavily utilized, most students take advantage of the college visits that the center facilitates. This year there were 140 post-high school representatives that came to PHS with over 1000 student sign ups.
“I used the center to go to the college visits, so it was still a helpful resource even though it wasn’t my primary one,” senior Alex Gish said.
The College and Career Center, however, offers much more beyond the visits.
After a busy fall and winter Break, Stefanie Manalo-LeClair, MHS counselor and head of the college and career counselor, was sitting in her empty office when she realized something should be done about the lack of student engagement with the center. She began making more prominent, updated newsletters that she sends out to every grade.
“I started inviting people to visit me. I reached out to juniors for one on one meetings and around 45 students have met with me,” Manalo-LeClair said.
Manalo-LeClair said her goal is to meet with every student at least once during their junior and/or senior year.
“That’s the biggest thing we’re excited about,” assistant principal Joe Marik said. “Juniors are starting to access the resources more often and that will continue to grow over the years.”
Once having met with juniors, Manalo-LeClair plans on reaching out to sophomores, and eventually freshmen.
Before this year, the counselors made a purposeful effort to not introduce college centered meetings and topics to underclassmen.
“We never used to encourage younger kids because we didn’t want to stress them out,” PHS counselor Amanda Carlson said. “But this year, when we met with freshmen one on one, we allowed them to check out one college visit and check out naviance, start filling that out.”
As Manalo-LeClair has learned and worked more with underclassmen, her position has changed about getting them involved in the college process early.
Manalo-LeClair said parents initially introduced the idea that underclassmen should have bigger roles in the college awareness process and has found that she agrees with them in not wanting to block curiosity.
“There’s always a chance that curiosity could lead to stress, but ideally parents monitor that,” Manalo-LeClair said. “I mean there are eighth graders who are stressed about college. I think it’s just the culture and the circles that people travel that sometimes initiate stress levels for students.”
Freshman Amalia Angulo frequents the center at least once a month and has attended the college visits, typically offered for upperclassmen.
“I go to Ms. ML regarding the future, like about pathways and stuff like that. I feel like its more relieving because you can build up stress and so by talking about it early on it can help you feel more prepared,” Angulo said.
Marik said his goal when it comes to including underclassmen, he simply wants to provide them with the information they’re seeking.
“At the end of the day, there are individuals who believe having more information will make the college application process easier, providing information to be motivated in the future to make decisions, and there are others that believe it will make it more stressful,” Marik said.
By just providing resources like the Naviance searches, career surveys, and ability to come and ask questions, those who want it and feel ready for it can take advantage of it.
“If we say no, it’s like we’re putting up a barrier as opposed to ‘here’s what you can do’ if they’re ready. If not, that’s totally okay and they won’t,” Marik said.
However, most Piedmont students use outside of school counselors to help with essays and specific questions pertaining to their applications. One of the issues that Marik and Manalo-LeClair are working to improve is connecting with each student – a slight complication with so many students to get to in a handful of 30 minute windows.
“It’s difficult for the center to be fully dedicated to each student, like keeping track of deadlines, because number one you have to take them out of class, which is problematic. And two is there are around 200 students in a class,” Hartford said.
At the moment, the goal to meet with all juniors seems a bit daunting, even to some juniors.
“I don’t think there’s really any way for her to meet with so many kids and get it personalized enough that you wouldn’t need an outside of school counselor,” said junior Robyn Kim, “Outside of school counselors have more time to meet with you and it’s just more personal.”
After talking to students about their actual wants and needs, Marik and Manalo-LeClair are understanding that the personal, one on one connection is one of the most important aspects of a college counselor.
“Outside help can be more personalized but we think we can actually provide that. We just have to build it into the program that hasn’t existed in the past,” Marik said, “At the end of the day, it is an individual choice. I’d love to get to a place where more students are utilizing our resources and aren’t necessarily relying on outside people to give them guidance.”
Manalo-LeClair hopes to mold the College and Career Center into more of a structured team of counselors, so that students feel like they are being heard and having their specific questions met.“
By working closely with the counseling department, Manalo-LeClair has a place to send specific emails she gets regarding programs, knowing that they are reaching students who will take advantage of the opportunity.
“Every counselor knows they are students better than the other counselors,” Manalo-LeClair said, “The strength is in us knowing our students so we can better support them if we all give space.”
Not only does each counselor know their group of students on a more familiar level, but they each have their own “thing” such as helping with essays or helping fill out the Common App, Manalo-LeClair said.
But the idea is that combined, they’d cover all aspects of the application process.
The reality is that it’s a team of people working together, constantly communicating to support decision making, Marik said.
“Ms. ML might not be the person you ask about what courses to take directly, but like what schools have programs based on that class taken. You might ask the same question to both people, and you’ll get pieces of the answer that you need together,” Marik said. “And again, we want students to realize that those are conversations that they should be having with both people. Because that will allow them to get better guidance when the team is able to understand the individual and the interests the individual is interested in pursuing.”
By having more than one opinion on an application, there is a better understanding on how the application could be viewed by admissions officers and other key staff members.
“I just think it’s sustainable when you’re sharing something so important, versus relying on one person because I just feel it’s sustainable and comprehensive,” Manalo-LeClair said.
So this spring and fall, pop by with any questions to the College and Career Center, who are here to support and help every student who wants the help.
“If students just knew that we know how to do all the different pieces of this, then they’d access us differently,” Manalo-LeClair said.
“I know students are under a lot of pressure, from friends, a lot from inside the community and we want students to feel comfortable and confident in who they are as people so they can make decision that are right for what they’re looking for and are excited about their choice, regardless of what other students are choosing,” Marik said.
