🏖️ 5 Ways to Revamp Your Counseling Program This Summer🏖️

As the final bell approaches, summer offers a rare window for reflection and strategic planning. Whether you're looking to streamline your systems or deepen student impact, this is the perfect time to reset and refocus your college and career readiness (CCR) efforts.

Here are five simple but powerful ways to revamp your counseling program over the summer:

1. Audit Your College Knowledge Tools

Do your students have a clear understanding of admissions, financial aid, and career pathways? In a research study by Dr. Richard Lapan and Dr. Tim Poynton, Reducing Inequality in High School Students’ College Knowledge: The Role of School Counselors, they found that seniors only answered about 50% of basic college knowledge questions correctly, with the gap of college knowledge growing between first generation and continuing-generation college-going families. Using the summer to update or create critical college knowledge tools for your students.

Update or create:

• A College Timeline (Grades 9–12)

• A College Knowledge Vocabulary List

• A “College Fit” Reflection Worksheet

Pro Tip: Use our free College Knowledge Quizzes to close equity gaps and boost student confidence throughout the college to career pathway.

2. Map Out Your Year in Advance

Take a calendar approach. Map out:

• When you’ll hold FAFSA nights, senior 1:1s, and testing workshops

• Which students need extra CCR support

• Monthly themes (e.g., “Career Awareness October”)

This gives your CCR efforts structure and intention—making it easier to say “yes” to what matters, and “no” to distractions. We like the National College Attainment Network’s College & Career Readiness Calendar for High Schools.

3. Refresh Your Presentation Materials

Your slides, handouts, and emails from two years ago? Time for a glow-up.

Try:

• Updating scholarship and FAFSA info

• Adding diverse student examples

• Including more visual data (charts, timelines, infographics)

Here is a FREE Canva Presentation you can edit, Maximizing Summer for College Admissions Success. Simply click on the editable template

4. Explore New Tech Tools, Resources & Templates

Summer is ideal for testing new tools you didn’t have time to explore during the year.

Worth checking out:

• AI-based tools for student writing support and college search

• College data comparison templates- Download College UnMazed’s 2025-2026 College Data Organizer

• Award letter analyzers- Download College UnMazed’s for Free!

• Customizable CCR lesson plans or advisory kits

• Check out new conferences and learn from other counselors- Join College UnMazed’s Dr. Amanda Sterk and she presents at the Summer Counselor Conference. This virtual summer counselor counselor offers 35 different breakouts, resources, CEU’s, and more!

5. Choose 1 Goal for Greater Impact

Rather than overhaul everything, identify one focus area to deepen in 2025–2026.

Some ideas:

• Increase early engagement with 9th/10th graders

• Improve equity for first-gen students

• Launch a peer advising or ambassador program

• Streamline how you track college outcomes

• Developed a “flip classroom approach”- create on-demand videos

Small, intentional changes lead to big impact over time.

👋 Let Us Help

At College UnMazed, we offer ready-to-use CCR resources—digital curriculum, planning tools, and monthly webinars—that save you time while increasing student outcomes.

Have questions or need a custom toolkit for your school? We’re here to support you. Email us at info@collegeunmazed.com.

Let this be your summer of reset and readiness. You've earned it.