Jan. 25 is coming fast for the RCMS counselors who run academic advising.

“The big rush is typical at the beginning of the school year,” said Mrs. Christy Ryder, a RCMS counselor of the Voyagers and All Stars team.

The big rush is referring to the time when most students change what electives they are going to be taking. For counselors this time can be hard, so Mrs. Ryder would like to shout out Ms. Jennifer Miley and Ms. Rachel Copeland because they put so much time and energy into making this part of the year’s process more organized and exciting.

Academic advising concludes in February, with counselors visiting seventh grade science classes and meeting with students to go over their already submitted classes and electives. Academic advising begins Jan. 9. During panther time your class watches a 50 minute video explaining the process of choosing courses.

 “It’s busy but exciting,” said Mrs. Ryder.

Helping choose electives for next year is a long process. Ccounselors will walk into a classroom and show a powerpoint. Then a few days later counselors come back and meet with students individually.

“You get to meet with kids you don’t normally meet with,” said Ms. Nina Ghafori of the Majestics, Dream and Dolphins team.

While meeting with classes during science, the counselors meet with students individually, this has a lot of benefits like being able to talk through your class choice. For the counselors it gives them the chance to learn more about you, giving them the opportunity to meet with students who they don’t talk with often or are from different teams learning about their personalities and hobbies.

The counselors have to work on three different grades. Sixth grade coming into Seventh grade. Seventh grade going to Eighth grade. Finally, Eighth grade going into Ninth grade!

Ms. Ghafori said she especially likes guiding the rising seventh graders through all of their different emotions. Mrs. Ryder said she enjoys all of the grade levels because they are all in their own part of the educational journey.

“I love academic advising” said Mrs. Ryder.