The counseling department is working to get underclassmen to become familiar with Naviance, a website that helps students find more about themselves and assists them with exploring their post-secondary school options. “It’s a college, career search and management tool,” said counselor Ann Nebolon.
Naviance allows students to take a personality quiz that suggests possible career opportunities for them. The program also helps students find colleges and view the grades and SAT scores of other students who were accepted into those colleges to see how they match up. Naviance even helps students with letters of recommendation and submitting school reports.
Nebolon believes that it is important for all students, including underclassmen, to use Naviance regularly. Nebolon said, “We want you guys to be super familiar with it so it isn’t such a big scary thing.”
Nebolon recommends that students attend the Naviance training workshops held during homeroom. They contain valuable, grade-specific information on how to use the website.
In the homeroom sessions, freshmen are taught how to log on and take a personality quiz to discover more about their interests and strengths. Sophomores learn new ways to connect with their community and complete a career interest profile to explore possible career opportunities. Juniors explore different post-secondary school options and learn about college searching. Seniors learn how Naviance can help them with applying to colleges.
As a student resource, student opinions of the website are important. One student attested that Naviance is not a resource that they use regularly, but they think that it could be helpful. “If utilized, Naviance can make the college application process easier,” said senior Ben Byerlee.
Another student believed that Naviance could be more helpful if it were implemented in different ways. “ The career test is not very helpful because it is too specific and points you towards one career. It could be more helpful if it was more general,” said junior Nick Liddington. Liddington also said that it would be better if Naviance tutorials were during class time rather than during homeroom or if a class was devoted to it, like the college app class.
Another student does not find Naviance helpful at all. “I have seen it explained and I still don’t know what it is and I’m still not sure why it is so good,” said freshman Mason Bright.
On the other hand, one senior finds Naviance a very useful program. “ I love it. I have been using it for scholarships and letters of recommendation, and it has been very helpful,” said Karen Oviedo.
Nebolon hopes that students will use Naviance more often and benefit from it. “We want all students using it pretty regularly, even having it bookmarked and clicking on it daily like Facebook. We want you to use it,” said Nebolon.