The One Trusted Adult Team

At Saint George Academy, college counseling is not a senior-year scramble. It is a four-year conversation about who a student is becoming, and it ends with a list of colleges that actually fits — academically, socially, and financially.

Students are guided to explore their strengths, interests, and evolving goals, so that when senior year arrives they are ready to step confidently into the next stage. Our model blends a twice-weekly seminar, individual advising, the daily attention of a grade-level advisor, and a real partnership with families.

How the program works

The college seminar — twice a week

Juniors (spring) and seniors (fall) meet twice weekly for a college seminar. This is where the work actually gets done rather than assigned: students draft and revise personal statements, work through supplemental prompts, build and narrow their college lists, practice interviews, and learn to read a financial aid award letter. Because the group is small, no one drifts through it quietly.

Naviance

Every student has a Naviance account, which becomes the spine of the process. Students use it to research colleges, track deadlines, record where they are applying, and request transcripts and letters of recommendation. Its scattergrams let a student see how applicants from Saint George have fared at a given college, which turns vague hopes into an honest conversation. Counselors and teachers submit school documents through it, and families can follow their student’s progress rather than guess at it.

Your grade-level advisor

Alongside college counseling, every student has a grade-level advisor who sees them regularly and knows when something is off — a dropped grade, a lost week, a student taking on too much or too little. Advisors work closely with the counseling team, so course selection, activities, and college planning stay connected to one another rather than living in separate offices.

Individual advising and family partnership

Each student meets regularly with the college counselor to build a personalized roadmap: selecting appropriately challenging courses, exploring career pathways, and shaping a thoughtful college list. Families are part of this from the beginning, through workshops and individual meetings. We talk about affordability early — running net price calculators, reviewing aid options, and identifying scholarships — before a student falls in love with a school that will not work.

Colleges come to us

Representatives from a wide range of institutions visit campus throughout the year. Students hear firsthand about academic programs, admission priorities, and campus life, and they practice speaking with admissions officers long before an interview matters.

What the four years look like

● Grade 9 — Build a strong academic foundation. Explore interests and activities. Learn how a transcript works and why it matters.

● Grade 10 — Course selection with intention. Early conversations about strengths and possible pathways. Introduction to Naviance.

● Grade 11 — The college seminar begins in earnest: testing plans, college list development, essay work, campus visits, and meetings with representatives.

● Grade 12 — Applications, essays, and deadlines, supported weekly. FAFSA and financial aid filing, scholarship searches, comparing offers, and making the final decision.

What every student and family receives

● Twice-weekly college seminar for juniors and seniors

● Individual advising for students and families

● Naviance for research, deadlines, scattergrams, and document submission

● A grade-level advisor who knows the student daily

● Course selection and academic planning

● College list development built on fit

● Essay, personal statement, and application support with line-by-line feedback

● Résumé review and interview practice

● FAFSA, financial aid, and scholarship guidance

● Student and family workshops

● College representative visits throughout the year

There is a college for everyone. The work is finding the right academic, social, and financial fit — and then making the case for that student.

Why it works here

A small school makes possible the kind of attention families often pay private counselors for. A counselor here can sit with a student and their parents, read every essay draft, talk through every prompt, and build a list that genuinely fits — because the counselor already knows the student, and so does everyone else in the building.

The counseling team

Through our College Seminars, Advisory and One Trusted Adult programs, every student is intentionally connected with an adult in the school who knows them well, checks in regularly, and serves as a consistent source of guidance, advocacy, and support. 

Ms. Jessie Katz, Director of Student Success, Community Partnerships & Counseling, leads college counseling and advises the ninth and twelfth grades. Mr. Jake Petzold, Director of Student Information Systems & School Counselor, advises the ninth grade and twelfth grade, supports students socially and emotionally as well as academically, and is the school's testing coordinator.   Rev. Dr. Leslye Noyes, a licensed mental health counselor and psychoanalyst, is with students on Wednesdays.

 Grade 11 co-advisors Ms. Emily Mowdy and Ms. Kelly Jahn round out the team, working closely with our counselors as students begin the more focused stages of college exploration and planning.  Grade 10 advisor Mr. Nicolas Iadevaio brings significant counseling and college guidance experience to the team. A former Director of College Guidance, he also serves as an adjunct professor in Manhattan University’s graduate Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling programs.

The counseling program is overseen by Dr. Rogutsky, Assistant Head of School, whose background includes extensive work in independent school admissions, enrollment management, and college guidance, as well as more than two decades in graduate counselor education. Dr. Rogutsky also established Saint George Academy’s partnership with Manhattan University’s School Counseling Program, bringing graduate counselors-in-training into the school to expand the individualized guidance and support available to students.

We cultivate graduates who leave Saint George not only prepared for college, but prepared for possibility — with the academic foundation, self-awareness, and confidence to chart their own path in a changing world.