The Counseling and
Guidance Program in St. Mary's is available to all students.
The counseling program includes academic, career, and
personal/social counseling.
Academic counseling includes:
encouraging all students to enhance their high school academic achievements.
This enables students to acquire the skills necessary to engage
in lifelong learning and to prepare for the competitive world of
work; coordinate
the Weekly Progress Reports; inform
students of the up-to-date high school graduation requirements;
help students with their high school class registration; identify to
students the entrance requirements for colleges and technical
schools; help individuals with their post-high school planning; present
local and national scholarship information; coordinate all the
state-mandated testing; present
current information and registration materials to students
for the ACT assessment; distribute financial aid information to
students and parents; etc.
Career
counseling includes: utilizing
(with students in grades 9-12) the “Choices” software program to
identify individual career interests, occupational information,
college and technical school information, and scholarship opportunities;
job shadowing experiences (juniors and seniors); career fairs; reports
and presenting
a speech on a chosen career as part of the speech class for English
1; students will summarize individual
career and college interests on a “Career and Life Planning
Action Plan” which is discussed individually with the counselor;
utilize the Career Assessment Program (freshmen) and the Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (juniors)
to identify careers that may match student’s
interests and abilities (Holland Types); etc.
Personal/Social
counseling promotes in students the skills needed to make
wise choices; solve interpersonal problems; make optional use of
students’ educational opportunities; to behave responsibly in the
school, the family, and the community; and to understand and
respect themselves and others. The
counselor meets individually with
students in need by self
referrals, staff referrals, or parent referrals.