College, Careers & Beyond: Young Alumni Recall the Role College Counseling Played in Helping Them Achieve Their Dreams

Young Alumni Recall the Role College Counseling Played in Helping Them Achieve Their Dreams

The college-search process is stressful for everyone. Students feel vulnerable as they explore options and wait for admission and aid decisions. Parents worry while walking the fi ne line between helping and hounding. Teachers pore over recommendations and fi eld questions about majors and fi t.

But at Regis Jesuit, there’s good news. Since the 2014–15 school year, the College Counseling Offi ce—led by Laura Hall, Director of College Counseling—has had a team of fi ve professional counselors wholly dedicated to lightening the psychological and logistical load and helping every student fi nd his or her path forward.

“The pressure is intense, from society and culture, from parents and from the students themselves,” said Hall, who believes confi dence is key for students. “Just being able to say ‘I’m working on it’ can create a sense of ease. Our programming helps every student stay on top of all of the pieces and parts of college applications, and if they are applying early action or early decision to their top choices, they’re ready.”

Hall and her team all have worked in college admission departments from the east to the west coasts, and at public, private, religious and secular institutions. The offi ce hosts in-person and virtual visits with college admission representatives, and helps students and families interpret data they fi nd in online tools identifying students’ strengths, needs and possible options. In a program new this year, College Counseling partnered with Regis Jesuit’s English Department to coach students through the essay-writing process.

For most students, the search begins during the junior year. By that time, according to Hall, most already have a solid understanding of who they are because of the self-exploration they’ve been doing throughout high school. “We are able to dig a little deeper to help connect students’ values, interests, hopes and dreams to college campuses that will continue to support their growth as Men and Women with and for Others. We also make sure students understand the logistical requirements and take ownership of the process.”

Most counseling takes place one-on-one, says Hall. “We take a very individualized approach to help students see that comparisons and rankings don’t determine worth. When the heat is on, we remind our kids that they are ‘enough’ just as they are, because if they’ve been discerning in their fi nal choice, as we encourage them to be, it will be the right one. Then we celebrate the heck out of every decision.”

“The pressure is intense, from society and culture, from parents and from the students themselves." LAURA HALL, DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING

Thillot '18, on right with siblings Molombo and Bimpe, is grateful for the guidance of the counseling team and is currently studying ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Recent alumni are grateful for the support they received from College Counseling. Kolondja Thillot ’18 is now a rising senior at CU Boulder, where he is majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology with an interest in human speciation. He expects to take a gap year before going to graduate school.

He recalled, “Going into college counseling, I was mainly considering CU Boulder [because] it was the only school I knew extensively in the beginning. They helped me explore my other options, introducing me to Creighton University, University of San Francisco and other Jesuit schools that were small, but had great graduate programs.”

Hall remembers Thillot as a “dream student who embraced the process. He wasn’t shy to stop by and ask questions.” Armed with information and acceptances, Thillot committed to CU Boulder, though Creighton was very appealing. “Finances ended up being the ultimate decider,” he said.

The College Counseling Center helped Regalado '20 get into her dream school, Berklee College of Music.

Makayla Regalado ’20 has just completed her fi rst year at her dream school, the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. During high school she played in a band, scoring gigs at Red Rocks and the Zozobra Music Festival in Santa Fe, among smaller venues. “My list was super short,” she said. “Berklee off ered everything I had ever hoped and dreamed of. If I hadn’t been accepted in 2020, my plan was to keep auditioning until I got in.” Regalado recalls working with two diff erent college counselors during her time at Regis Jesuit. “I really connected with both. The fi rst one did a great job of creating a list of colleges for me to check out and consider applying to. By my senior year, I knew that Berklee was the only place I wanted to go to, so my second counselor helped me a ton with the application process. It was a very easy decision for me to go to Berklee.”

with continued assistance from College Counseling, Sim '20 is heading to the Naval Academy in the fall 2021.

Kayla Sim ’20 also had a dream, and for her, resilience paid off . She recalls, “When I started my college search, I defi nitely had set the United States Naval Academy (USNA) as my main goal, but I wasn't entirely sure what my other choices were. The meeting my junior year helped me narrow down my search, from location, to major variety, to how diffi cult the school might be. Ms. Hall also helped me with the process with the Academy, as it is a lot diff erent and a bit more rigorous than applying to the average state or private school.”

Despite Sim’s best eff ort, she wasn’t accepted the fi rst time around—so she returned to the College Counseling Offi ce. “They helped me a lot again with narrowing down my choices from what schools I had gotten accepted into, and which ones had NROTC programs (Naval Reserve Offi cer Training Corps) where I could start my military training and use the scholarship I’d been awarded.”

Just before the deadline last spring, Sim committed to Marquette University as a mechanical engineering major in the Honors program and part of the NROTC. She was happy with her decision but kept her dream of attending the Naval Academy alive, and the counseling process continued beyond high school graduation.

“When I re-applied to the Academy during my freshman year of college, Ms. Hall was again great with helping me through the application process” Sim notes. She was accepted to the Naval Academy this time around and will be transferring there this fall. “Without the help of College Counseling, I probably wouldn't be where I am now.”