The Northampton High School Guidance Department In the Guidance Department, we strive to help each student make the best possible use of Northampton High School's academic, extracurricular, and athletic offerings, both in relation to the school's overall educational mission and to each student's post-high school plans. The majority of NHS students pursue some sort of post-secondary education, but we also help students to prepare for employment, military service and deferred college admission. All four of us are knowledgeable, experienced guidance counselors who are certified in secondary school counseling. We also come to our work with advanced degrees and varied professional backgrounds in fields such as education, administration, mental health and human services. Students and parents first meet us in the spring of eighth grade, during the group sessions that we provide to explain the high school's academic offerings and the course selection process. Students are assigned alphabetically to one guidance counselor for their four years of high school. We begin to meet individually with students after the first five-week progress reports have been issued in ninth grade, so that we can introduce ourselves and our services, and review the student's first performance assessment. We continue to meet individually with sophomores and juniors, in addition to maintaining an "open-door policy" to all students. We strive to develop a supportive connection with each student. Doing so allows us to use our knowledge to help students to plan their high school programs thoughtfully, and to become a trusted resource that students and parents can turn to with educational, personal, familial and community concerns and problems. As students progress in high school, college planning becomes an increasingly important focus of our work with most of them. College admissions are highly competitive, and we continually update our knowledge of various schools and programs. This allows us to help juniors and seniors to sift through the barrage of available information about colleges and to be students' most effective resource in finding the college that will be the best fit for them. · Over the school year, we expect to host over 100 representatives of colleges and the military, with whom we develop relationships which are advantageous to NHS students. We also coordinate college fairs. · We enable school based administration of PSAT, SAT, AP, MCAS, ASVAB and other testing, and facilitate the delivery of on site SAT prep when there is sufficient demand. We provide expertise in the interpretation and use of test results, and have initiated the development of a school-specific database that will improve the college admissions information that we provide to students and parents. · We begin to discuss college admissions individually with students during the winter of junior year, and we provide college admissions and financial aid workshops in the spring. · We begin meeting in September with seniors to plan the tasks necessary for college applications, letters of recommendation, continuation of the search and screening process, and timely completion and mailing of all transcripts, student-generated materials and financial aid forms. A list of all of the schools to which the members of the NHS Class of 2004 were accepted can be found here. Guidance counselors also handle a variety of other important functions: · We manage new registrations and the transitions of new students and schools-of-choice students. · We coordinate enrollment in courses at Smith College, tutoring with Smith College students, and internships. · We provide referrals to professional services outside of the school. The guidance department attends to the "big picture" for each student. We strive to articulate how each student's unique constellation of interests, abilities and aspirations can best be served by the variety of academic and extracurricular experiences that Northampton High School has to offer. We encourage the active involvement of all families in their student's education, and we are available to talk and meet with parents of students, and prospective students, throughout the year. Fred Itterly, Head of Guidance Yajaira Fuentes Lisann Giordano Maureen Moore Kathy Goodwin-Boyd, School Adjustment Counselor