The 2024-2025 school year brought on a shift in the counseling system at Strath Haven High School, as counselors now take responsibility for entire grade levels. 

With this came another significant change, this time in the career counseling world. Seniors now have a separate counselor, Ms. Kristin Dunning, to handle all post high school matters.

In past years, the entire student body was divided alphabetically between four counselors. Now, counselors take on one grade level each, following them throughout their high school experience. This is with the exception of ninth graders, who stick with their eighth grade counselor for freshman year before entering the cycle.

“It’s different in a way, because now you’re focusing just entirely on that grade and some of the goals that are there,” eleventh grade counselor and K-12 counseling department chair Mr. Travis Edwards said.

Counselors have felt that working with one class allows them to offer more tailored and individualized support to students. 

“It allows us to provide very specific resources for a very specific class,” Edwards said. 

Some students have also felt the change has welcomed a more personal relationship between counselors and students, especially in the world of career counseling.

“I think that it’s definitely very helpful, because the counselor is usually busy with a bunch of stuff,” senior Sophie Lin said. “It’s very hard to schedule a meeting with [Ms. Jennifer Salvage], so having someone like Ms. Dunning to focus specifically on college and career planning is very helpful.” 

Having a College and Career Counselor has placed a line between more personal and professional questions that students may have. Currently, seniors have Ms. Jennifer Salvage as their grade level counselor and Dunning as their primary career and college resource.

“It’s a lot easier to find [Dunning] and ask her to answer specific questions so that I can leave other matters to Ms. Salvage,” Lin said. “It’s just way more efficient.”

Dunning’s role as Career and College Counselor allows grade level administrators to focus more so on small group issues while she covers career resources. 

“Whereas the school counselor works very individually with students and sometimes in small groups, Mrs. Dunning is also collaborating with us as class counselors to provide things like access to college fairs, college representatives and people that come in, and career resources” Edwards said. 

However, some students have felt that the system has become more indirect and unbalanced.

“Honestly, the whole experience feels a lot less personal, but I understand that drop-in sessions and hours have been made a lot more accessible,” senior Linden Corbett said. 

The issue of recommendation letters was another factor that pushed for the change. Responsibility to write the letters initially fell on grade level counselors in addition to their other duties.

“I could definitely tell that [this] year, Ms. Salvage was a lot busier, because she had to write recommendation letters for 300 people,” Lin said. 

Dunning’s position helps to alleviate some of that pressure.

While the counseling change has felt prominent for upperclassmen, the shift did not ultimately have much effect on the younger side of the school.

“Every single person uses a counselor junior and senior year, but freshman and sophomore year, many people don’t use it as much. I feel like it just makes more sense that way,” junior Maisie Strachan said. 

The responsibility of counselors can vary based on the amount of students that fall under their umbrella. 

“It can be a little different because it depends on the class size,” Edwards said. “I won the lottery in some ways. My joke is that our junior class right now, class of 2026, is small, which is very abnormal.”

Strath Haven strives to achieve and maintain a solid counseling system, and Edwards believes the current shift is a big step towards achieving support for students.

“As students and families have feedback, I think it’s important that we just continue to communicate, because as we enhance our resources and support for folks, we do that with all stakeholders,” Edwards said.