College Career Center offers students unique resources

The fall season proposes the starting and closing of a chapter for students. Freshmen prepare to start high school and seniors prepare to end it. But for those ending high school the College Career Center is there to help.

“Right now we are working with seniors and helping with applications, deadlines and looking into different colleges,” college counselor Sarah English said.

The College Career Center opened in the late eighties. It aims to help students determine their post graduation and post secondary options.

The College Career Center is located in Room 1123 in the west building and is just south of the Wood Commons. Inside there are financial, career and college specialists for students wondering about after high school.

“Right now we are meeting with our college representatives, and there are about 200 that come in,” English said, “We encourage juniors and seniors to take advantage of these opportunities to meet with them.”

To register, Stevenson students need to create a pass on Naviance, a college and career readiness website that partners with high schools. This needs to be done two days in advance as a confirmation that they will attend Stevenson’s college visits.

“Not only do they get more information about the school without having to travel to it, sometimes they meet the person that is reading their application,” English said.  

These visits are open to both juniors and seniors. If the visit is during school hours they need a teacher signature to get excused from class.

The College Career Center can be very different at other high schools.

The center is not the main attraction as it is just a room with banners, tables and a computer this is where we hold all of our college visits,” said Lake Zurich High School’s college counselor Carl Krause said.

Lake Zurich High School also hosts college visits with students. But unlike Stevenson they have one college counselor: Krause.

“A lot of schools use Naviance, but we are probably one of the only schools in the states and in the country where we sit with the college representatives and we take detailed notes and put them into Naviance,” college counselor Dan Miller said.

Lake Zurich High School also uses Naviance. They are holding a Naviance night on October 17th where parents and students attend a workshop hosted by Krause that explores the features and assessments found on Naviance. This is an effort to increase student use.

“I feel that Naviance is underused more than anything else,” Krause said.

Stevenson’s CCC also organizes events for freshmen and sophomores as well. This includes opportunities to meet with Stevenson’s college counselors.

“We start planning freshman year to help kids navigate the college process,” Krause said.

Both Stevenson and Lake Zurich High School aim to prepare students for college early. This can help them have a path in high school

“For freshman and sophomore families there is a designated night where we meet with parents not necessarily for college, but to make sure they are getting the most out of high school,” Miller said.