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04/25/2023 08:07 AMUpperclassmen at North Haven High School (NHHS) are in the thick of college preparation and application processes, and along with that can come waves of stress for them. That’s where school counselors like Samantha Stowe come into the picture.
“We do a lot with our students within junior year. Our standard [is] that we meet with our students at least twice a year at minimum. But once we get to junior year, we start to ramp that up,” Samantha says. “We’ll start in November, where I’ll introduce all the different opportunities that are available to a student, whether it be a two-year college, community college, whether it be four-year, trades programs, military, workforce, or even a gap year. We go through everything. It’s a long meeting, but it’s really informational.”
Samantha’s personal experience helps her guide students in the best direction academically or anywhere else in life. She attended the University of Connecticut at its West Hartford campus, originally majoring in allied health, looking to work in the medical field. But her interests changed when she became more interested in the social sciences and humanities rather than topics like math and chemistry.
Part of her responsibility is navigating NHHS through a similar time when her interests shifted and finding what is right for them
“I think North Haven does a really excellent job of that,” she says. “In regards to tailoring kids’ interests and kind of figuring out what they do like, we have a lot of courses here and a lot of clubs and activities that allow the kids to explore that.”
Samantha came to NHHS two years ago—a school she calls her “dream school”—and she helps students navigate through career aspirations. She recalls having “a really great experience” with her own counselor in high school. Samantha employs the same form of communication with her students.
“I’m honest with my students, and I tell them all the time, ‘I’m not gonna lie to you,’ because that’s not how life works,” she says. “I want to prepare you to be as successful as you can...I would rather you hear the harder stuff from me in a safe environment, where we can have a discussion, we can kind of figure out why something happened or why I’m kind of giving you this recommendation or telling you this. Then you say, ‘Oh yes, you’re amazing, and you can reach for the stars.”
Samantha says honesty is valuable for students, especially when dealing with issues that can be emotional.
“Sometimes that can be a hard conversation, but I would rather them hear it from me, where we can kind of process through those emotions, process through what they’re feeling,” said Samantha. “I never want to diminish somebody’s dreams and hopes and aspirations and goals. But a lot of it is kind of shaping where our strengths are and focusing on our strengths, identifying areas of challenge, and seeing how that’s gonna weigh in.”
Samantha is also attentive to the increased mental obstacles exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic on top of the college prep of her students.
“You’re 17, 18 years old, and we’re asking you to plan your future, and in normal times, that’s stressful. But now we’re coming off of COVID, where half of your high school experience was online going through a global pandemic. So the increase in anxiety and depression, definitely we’ve seen that.”
In addition to anxiety and college prep stress, Samantha says it’s also common for students not to know what they want to do after college. She says that it’s OK.
“I have a lot of kids that come in, and even as juniors and even seniors, [they say] ‘I have no idea what I want to do.’ What I say to them is that’s OK, that’s fine,” says Samantha. “For me, I really want the process for the students to be a positive experience for them. I don’t want it to feel like just another thing added onto their plate. And so I always like to just have little meetings with them. Just check in and say, ‘Hey, where are we at? How are we doing?’ I’ve had some seniors that come in by October and they’re like, ‘I’ve done nothing.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s great. That’s totally fine.’”