This years’ Compass, previously known as TMM, has focused a lot on students and their futures. A new tool that is being introduced is Naviance. The purpose of this website is to help high schoolers through the college application process. Naviance was introduced to seniors and some students in the previous year, but this year the counseling department intends to make full use of all of its features. 

The OHS counseling department decided to make the switch to Naviance because their old system was outdated and unorganized. OHS Counselor Ms. Sara Craig said, “All transcripts are sent through there, common app information is linked through there and all letters of recommendation, so it’s super easy.” The counselors also love the feature of tracking all of a student’s information. Within Naviance, they are able to track what colleges the students are looking at and track what applications students have submitted. With this information, they can easily assist students in their college application journey and give them the support they need.

College application finalizations are housed in Naviance. Transcripts can be sent to colleges through Naviance. Senior Avery Ahrens said, “It was really easy to submit transcripts. It was submitted and accepted the next day.” Teacher recommendations are also accommodated in the website. Students have the ability to request recommendations from teachers and send them to their choice of schools. Senior Max Guenther said. “I like the feature of combining the Common App and Naviance.” Naviance makes the college application process smoother and organized, with all of your information in one place. 

Another feature of Naviance is the data it collects. Ms. Craig said, “It will track if students stay in college for up to five years. We get really good data on students after they leave -not like by name and stuff- but just like how many have stayed in school.” This data can help determine what support OHS students need and what the counseling department and teachers can do to improve the experience for future students. 

Naviance is not  just about connecting students to post-secondary schools. There are also features that appeal to younger grades. The site includes a Self-Discovery Profiler that contains small quizzes. These quizzes test a students’ specific intelligences, learning and productivity methods, personality, skills and strengths explorer. OHS Counselor Ms. Tami Langlois said, “Most of that personality stuff will be done in freshman and sophomore year, like where kids’ strengths are, what their interests are and how they align with different career opportunities, and the classes they’re taking or will take.” Students can use the information that they discover about themselves and apply it to their classroom learning. Ms. Langlois said, “Not everybody’s four year college bound, so it’s a nice tool for students just to figure out where their interests are and what kind of training they need to get.”

Classroom application is another feature of Naviance. Options Teacher Ms. Sara Baird uses the Self-Discovery Profile features to help students in her class. Ms. Baird said, “We analyze those and look at how they can use that information to, to help them figure out how they work best and what kind of support they’d benefit from.” The students use the information from the assessments to put together a Personal User Manual which can be shared with teachers, other students and mentors. The Self-Discovery features can also help students make decisions for their future.