Junior Focus day is an annual event at McLean aimed at juniors who will soon have to enter life outside of high school. There were many different sessions offered to cover all grounds.

“Those sessions kind of look in every different direction that a student might go in after high school, so we’re just trying to expose them to anything that they might be doing, whether it’s going to college, or taking a gap year, or going into the workforce, we’re just trying to give them that,” Director of Student Services Paul Stansbery said.

The juniors began their day in the auditorium where counselor Greg Olcott prefaced the morning with an overview of college applications; telling students to ask teachers for recommendations early and to go to the application workshop to work on college essays.

Then, the the four 30 minute sessions began, with 12 panels available overall.  

The largest sessions were the “Mock Admissions Panel,” “College Admissions Testing,” “Ask the Deans,” “Application Components,” and “Assess the Fit,” which lasted all four sessions.

The variety of options gave juniors a perfect opportunity to learn more about the college process.

“I think a lot of juniors don’t know much about college applications, and this is a really good opportunity to ask questions and get an understanding of how the whole process works,” junior Leila Williams said.

There were also the non-college sessions where students could learn about the military, a gap year, or employment options.

The many sessions with experts on the various subjects were organized by the counselors, but in the end, it was definitely worth it to provide juniors with a better plan for their future.

“It is a lot of work, so the counselors and Ms. Venos work really hard to make this program happen. But it’s also a program that everyone down here looks forward to every year because they’re proud, but they also really believe that this is something that’s going to be really helpful to the junior class,” Stansbery said.