The school year is coming to a close and plans for the following school year are being finalized. Seniors have received their college acceptances, and underclassmen have chosen their classes. 

What many students do not realize is that in order to achieve success in transitioning to the following year, our counselors have put in numerous hours of hard work behind the scenes.

Counselors are often under appreciated by both students and parents. They exist to support us during both rough and positive situations throughout the four years of our high school careers.

“I enjoy helping students, whether it is answering a simple question or helping them through a tough personal time,” counselor Rebecca Lockard said.

The nine counselors have been working tirelessly since the start of the year. Each counselor is assigned hundreds of students, and among them, there are a group of seniors that will be applying to college or other endeavors after high school.

Along with individual teacher recommendations, colleges require their applicants to include a letter of recommendation from their counselors. These recommendations are no easy task to complete. Since every recommendation is unique, this means that the counselor has to write a specialized recommendation for all of their seniors.

For underclassmen, picking classes can be an intimidating task. Counselors are there to help their students select the classes that are appropriate fits.

Along with selecting classes, counselors are often faced with a plethora of course change requests both at the end of a school year and at the start of the following year.

The switching of one course could affect the student’s entire schedule and more often than not, multiple classes would have to be changed as well.

Amidst all the paperwork, counselors also work hard to make personal connections with their students, they are genuinely interested in their students’ lives.

“No matter what else I am busy doing, a student stopping by my office is the best and most important thing in my day,” counselor Mark Vitelli said.

For Vitelli, he enjoys listening to his students’ fascinating stories from around the globe. Vitelli has a map of the world in his office where all students are welcomed to place a pin to the places they have been.

In conclusion, counselors truly represent the hardworking and talented environment. The whole student services department helps us in ways that we often do not realize.

The work of our counselors put forth is crucial to the success of every student and we should take the time to thank our counselors in person for all their hard work.

“Each day is different and I never know who will walk in my door or where that conversation will lead,” Lockard said. “I like the variety and the different types things I have to deal with. It makes almost every day interesting.”