Cloquet High School preps seniors with College Knowledge Month

Jess Waldbillig, The Pine Journal, Cloquet, Minn.
·3 min read

Nov. 1—CLOQUET — The Minnesota Department of Education recognizes October as College Knowledge Month, and the counselors at Cloquet High School have "taken it and made it our own," said counselor Nicole Lackas.

Events were planned all throughout the month of October — including speaking in senior classes about the college application process and helping students who are not college-bound navigate other post-graduation steps and plans — but the last full week of October was dubbed College Knowledge Week.

The week featured NCAA day on Monday for students to rep any college merch they have; Tuesday's Military Day gave students the opportunity to speak with representatives from each military branch; Wednesday included a Career Technical Education showcase for students to explore the school's offerings that can help them get a jump start on life and trade skills; CHS counselors and admission representatives from all of the Northland colleges spent the entirety of Thursday in the CHS library to help students fill out college applications; and Friday rounded the week out with a mini college fair.

Lackas said the main goal of College Knowledge Week is to make life post-graduation — whether that involves college or not — approachable for students.

"I always tell our kids, if they graduate and they don't know what their next step is ... then (we) haven't done our job," said Lackas.

"I've had probably two or three kids a day in my office this month just working on their essays ... talking about scholarships, talking about the importance of getting on those campuses, getting on those tours ... it's so fun to daydream with (the students) and look at their future," said Lackas.

Senior Lucy Mertz is hoping to go to the University of Washington to double major in environmental science and English, and according to Lackas, is in the counseling office multiple times a week working on college essays and applications.

Mertz shared that the rush of college prep throughout the month of October has been a bit overwhelming, but that the offerings and activities of College Knowledge Month have been helpful.

The counselors gave students "a timeline of what needed to be done and that took away a lot of the questions that I think people had," Mertz said.

Her classmate Grace Swanson — who is looking to study environmental science at the University of Minnesota Duluth — added, "It's helpful that the counselors are always willing to help with college stuff because there's so many steps that you don't really know about unless you ask or unless they tell you ... when they're helping with applications it will be really helpful for people to just not be so overwhelmed."

CHS counselor Shannon Sams said a large part of the reason why she, Lackas and counselor Nicole DeCoteau Romero have been able to make such a big deal out of College Knowledge Month is because there are three of them.

"Enrollment has increased and problems have increased, especially after COVID-19. We spent a year and a half just crisis counseling ... so we had a conversation with students at the end of that year that was just like ... what could we do better?" Sams said.

"A lot of kids were like, 'Well we can't ever get in to see you guys.' And so they were kind of feeling like they were floundering when it came to (college) stuff, so we were really fortunate to be able to hire a third counselor, and that has made a world of difference," she said.