ABSTRACT
In the fall of 2010 as a second year school counselor-in-training I began my fieldwork at Hillview High School in Hillview, California. I began my work with my fellow school counselor-in-training, Gizelle Roberson, by shadowing our supervisors, credentialed school counselors Joe Kinney and Dorothy Dunlap. At the start of each school year, high school counselors begin by conducting senior check-in meetings with twelfth grade seniors to assess each students’ academic progress thus far, advise on classes needed to meet graduation requirements, college entry requirements, and ways to remediate courses. Often times during senior check-ins, we would hear twelfth grade seniors say, “I didn’t realize those classes I took my freshman year really mattered!” After hearing this statement, we discussed with Mr. Kinney and Ms. Dunlap the idea of us counselors-in-training acting as freshman support counselors. Our supervisors felt that there was a need for freshman support counselors; we were assigned this informal title and got to work.
