to file application forms and meet financial aid deadlines. As important, a KNN will connect with them both personally and emotionally. They will understand the student’s present self and help them imagine their future self. Effective college counseling is, therefore, a systematic form of dream-catching! Those of us who love college counseling love it for this very reason. One of the sad and tragic facts of the U.S. education system is that most students do not have a KNN in their life, or, if they do, they get very little time with one. The recommended student to counselor ratio is 250:1. The national average is 408:1. Some state averages run as high as 650:1. Even the recommended ratio is mindbogglingly high. And note, these counselors are tasked with more duties than college counseling, like scheduling and mental health support. Most students, therefore, only receive between 38-45 minutes of college planning assistance over their four years of high school. With this context in mind, Park’s offerings in college counseling are a powerful departure from the norm. In essence, every Park teacher is a KNN. Due to Park’s tight-knit community and small class size, every student is recognized and known - the two keys to transformational educational relationships. No student at Park can avoid this KNN web that threads throughout the campus (as well as outside of it, too). Three members of Park’s staff - our Director of Counseling, Julie Lewis; our Head of Upper School, Charles Hartney; and myself - systematically work with each Upper School student beginning in ninth grade to develop a list of schools that will be their best-fit placements according to the five-element definition of “fit” described above. Mrs. Lewis keeps every student on track and on time, and we all help them craft their applications to represent their authentic and wholly unique voices. Park enjoys the privilege to serve as a model for student post-secondary navigational support, and we take this opportunity not only very seriously, but as the core of our mission. “Mrs. Lewis is the best college counselor I’ve had between the two high schools I’ve attended. She is very approachable, easy to talk to, and has set us up beautifully when it comes to applying for college and scholarships. She has made the college application process so much easier”. - Elijah Greene ‘26, Committed to Kansas State University “We’ve gone on guided tours to colleges to see their facilities and campus life, and these experiences have given me ideas of what I would like in my next step of schooling. Without the counseling team, I might not have realized that I want to study abroad, and I might even be pursuing a different major. Ms. Lewis helps me oneon-one decide what I want the next part of my life to be like, which makes a huge difference in my confidence.” - Eliza Pickering ‘27 Park alumni and Cornell students Ja'Onni R. McClerkin ‘22 (left) and Jimmy Mao ‘19 (right) catch up with Head of Upper School Charles Hartney on a junior class trip “The college counseling team has helped make the process feel less overwhelming. They don’t just focus on where you can get in, they ask you to think about what fits you.” - Christine Etulo ‘27 26
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