As fall approaches, counselors have begun meeting with students during class to help them outline their academic goals and revisit previous choices to ensure they’re on track for success.

“We meet with our students twice a year,” counselor Dionne Reicher said. “We go over where every student is regarding being on track for graduation. We also talk about their goals here at Southwest, and then post-secondary goals, whether it’s college, military, workforce, or whatever it may be.”

This year, academic planning has changed. Counselors are dispersing information by creating flyers about academic planning and the credits needed to graduate.

“We have flyers for every class level, which is something we didn’t have in the past,” Counselor Kailee Dudoit said. “If students have any questions [about] general information, there’s a flier with information to make it more straight-lined for the kids and parents.”

These new techniques have proven to be beneficial for students in their preparation for education after high school.

“It really helps out with scholarships,” senior John Chara said. “I personally am going to be a first generation student, so me and my parents don’t have much knowledge [about] this. Getting weekly emails from our counselors really helps plan for college.”

Some students have found laying out a plan early for secondary-school and following it to the utmost is the best way to have a successful high school academic career.

“I’ve been planning my academic goals since sophomore year,” senior Jax Billings said. “I think it’s important to make sure you’re not jumping into anything blindly. Make sure you start your academic plan as soon as possible and try to find what you really want to do along with backup plans. It’s important because if something falls short, then you have the things you can fall back on.”

The new academic planning system also differs from other schools with the amount of time students are given to discuss with their counselor.

“They’re in and they’re out because they have to get through a whole class in one period,” Hare said. “[Students at other schools are] a little bit more on crunch time, whereas we will say you get as much time as you want. Bring your questions, we will answer them all, and come back to us if you need to. Not to say that [other schools] wouldn’t do that, they’re just on a time constraint.”

Academic planning will continue until all students have met with their counselors.

“I love this time of year. I love the course planning and how it fits into future plans, but the more the kid gets into it, the more exciting it is for us too. The kids don’t have to be excited, they can be scared, but the more they give us, the more honest they are with us, the more we can help them with their courses,” counselor Elizabeth Hare said . “We want kids to choose their courses according to their current goals and their future goals.”