Saint Raphael Academy Welcome to the Saints family. Welcome home.

Guidance

Our goal as individual counselors and as a department is to encourage and embolden students as they build toward a confident college-preparatory experience.

A cornerstone of the Saint Raphael Academy experience is the student-parent-school relationship. Along that line, student success is predicated on strong home/school communication. Students are encouraged to seek out answers to questions and follow their dreams.

Recognizing that lifelong lessons can be grounded in high school experiences, guidance counselors aim to support students throughout every new endeavor. Students are encouraged to audition for school productions, challenge themselves through rigorous coursework, and engage the community in volunteerism.

Students meet with their counselors throughout each year. Counselors visit classrooms and discuss study skills, social concerns, and post-graduation strategies. Counselors also meet with each student individually to develop academic goals and college plans.

The guidance office coordinates on-campus visits from colleges and universities. During these opportunities, students can have a one-to-one conversation with admission representatives and receive a more personal exchange of information.

Please let us know your questions and concerns. We are here to encourage and assist in the success of not just the individual student, but the entire community.

Freshmen

As new high school students, it is important to have a smooth transition. Recognizing this can be a difficult process, and we want to be sure you have the most effective resources available. Teachers and counselors will be in frequent contact with you and your parents to ensure that your entry into the Saint Raphael community is successful.

Academically, there can be new challenges and new goals—all of which will send you on exciting new adventures.

 

Sophomores

We recognize that no year is more or less important to your high school career. Whereas freshman year is a transition to a new environment and junior and senior years are building towards graduation and college plans, your sophomore year is an opportunity to solidify your academic record and personal success.

Engage with your academic success, build your extracurricular experiences, and understand relationships. These three quick tips can be critical to your long-term success. Now that you understand what a high school class expects you to be responsible for, do it, but also go beyond basic requirements. Get involved in the community through activities you feel passionately about. This will also help build a resume colleges will be impressed with. Have real conversations with people where dialog is richer than typing into your phone; learn from educated discourse.

 

Juniors

“It’s never too early.”
Your planning for graduation and beyond might feel like a long way off, however when you engage the process in the junior year, your senior year can be much less stressful and much more successful. Academically, this will be the last full set of grades admissions offices will see. Keep this in mind as you face more rigorous coursework. This is the time to build a high level of college readiness.
Understand that as the transition into high school may have been a challenge, the transition into college will be more so. Since you are more mature and responsible, you know how to anticipate this challenge and be prepared. Work with your teachers and guidance counselors to develop study skills focused on not just the curriculum, but learning how to learn.

Guidance counselors will be meeting with students in class and individually to begin the college search process. As each student is unique, each search is unique, and we are prepared to work with students and families.

 

Seniors

You should plan on this being a busy year. Where other students have said it is even stressful, you can put that out of your mind if you are organized and fully prepared for the college search and application process.

Counselors will meet extensively with each student throughout the year. Again, both in the classroom setting and individually, students have numerous opportunities to discuss their own personal goals.