At the start of the 2022-2023 school year, Dominion welcomed five new counselors onto the counseling team. For some students, this means just another name atop their schedule, but for others there’s a deeper meaning. The change in staff means that around 75% of the seniors have less than a year to get to know their new counselor in hopes of getting a strong college recommendation letter from them. 

In an effort to get to know the senior class, counselors stated that they have been attending study halls, scheduling appointments, and asking that the students come to them, in addition to the information sheet they provided for students and parents. 

“Please bring your questions to me, because that’s communication one on one. If you have a concern, don’t keep it to yourself, bring it to my table, and we will tackle it together,” said Zachary Turner, one of Dominion’s new counselors.

“I’ve spent a lot of time working with kids and understanding who they are and the importance of going to college or, you know, starting a career after high school. It’s extremely important to me because I don’t want to represent a student I don’t know,” said Amanda Brougham, another new counselor.

As this year’s seniors start gathering college recommendation letters, and writing college essays, their concern for the lack of connection between students and counselors has begun to rise. Most students who formed close bonds with their counselors in the three years prior expressed how they felt a lack of communication as the new counselors arrived. 

”Now all of a sudden, I need a new recommendation letter from somebody that knows nothing about me. I feel that puts me at a disadvantage compared to kids whose counselors can really write about their personality and how they’ve grown as a student versus mine [who] just doesn’t know anything about me,” senior Anna Adiaconitei said.

Amanda Patel, one of the two returning counselors said, “I know that we have a really great team. I’ve been super impressed with them so far. They are really on the ball, trying to get past the learning curve of becoming a high school counselor. I think the good thing is that they are all really experienced as counselors in their own way.”