Guidance Program

All students are provided Guidance periods in their schedule to engage in important conversations about topics relative to their formation into men for and with others. These sessions are facilitated by the grade-level counselors and often involve outside speakers. These guidance sessions, on average, are one time per week.

Guidance topics and wellness programs for students include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Counseling grade-level meetings: how to seek help, where to go, resources available

• Course selection recommendations

• Stress management: positive and negative stressors, and how to ask for and get assistance

• Time management, study skills, and personal balance in academics, extra-curricular, family, and social

• Case Studies and health seminars: substance use, drugs, social pressures, decisions making and coping

• Social media: responsible use and issues related to bullying/targeting, including specific consequences of responsible and irresponsible use  

• Discuss the comorbidity between substance use and mental health

• Identify trends, habits, and causality to educate students about healthy social decisions.   

• Review steps for seeking help for self or others, including information in the student handbook, as it pertains to obtaining confidential help from counselors.

• Grade-level retreat activities designed to make students feel less alone, including small-group discussions and opportunities for individual outreach. (Activities do not shy away from difficult questions and directly address anxiety and depression, personal balance, including all dimensions of physical, emotional, and spiritual health.)

• Offer parent/student panels and interviews at freshmen and sophomore level retreat and all grade-level Ignatian Days to fully engage families in balancing a healthy student life at school and home.