NNHS Counselor Connection

• 🪧 Counselor Reminders (All)
• 📱 Follow us!
• 🌙 Counselor Evening Programs (All)
• ✅ Upcoming Opportunities (All)
• 📖 Counseling Curriculum (All)
• 💰 Free College Application Weeks (12th)
• 💲 FAFSA Graduation Requirement (12th)
• 🎓 College Rep Visits to NNHS (10th - 12th)
• 📝 Testing Night Recap (10th - 11th)
• 🧰 TCD Explore Day (10th - 11th)
• 🧭 NCompass
• 💻 SchooLinks Parent/Guardian Accounts

Due to staffing changes within the Student Services Department, your student's assigned counselor may have changed from last school year. For the most up-to-date list of School Counselors and their alpha team assignments, check out our Student Services Staff page.

If students would like to schedule an appointment with their School Counselor, or the College & Career Counselor, they can do so using our Calendly links.

We are ramping up our social media presence this school year! Follow us on Instagram or Twitter/X at @NNHSPARC to be up-to-date on the latest information in personal branding (#MarketMeMonday), non-traditional postsecondary options (#BeyondTheDesk), hot careers requiring a bachelor's degree (#WednesdayWork), the amazing opportunities at College of DuPage (#ThriveAtCOD), and hidden gem colleges & universities (#FridayFinds).

For the 2026-27 School Year, the Counseling Department will be offering joint evening programs with Naperville Central Counselors, tailored for students & families. We invite you to view our calendar of events and save the dates to join us! We will send additional reminders about upcoming events via email, Apptegy, and in each monthly newsletter.

For the month of October, we invite our Senior families to join us for FAFSA Completion Workshops at NCHS (10/28: 6:30-8p) and NNHS (10/29: 5:30-7p). More information will be sent to Senior families as we get closer to these events.

Each month we will highlight job, volunteer, and informational opportunities shared with Student Services. The job & volunteer opportunities are also listed in the SchooLinks Opportunity Board that all students can access:

• On-going: Little Friends Respite
• 1) Complete the volunteer application & waivers
• 2) Sign-up for specific dates
• 3) Complete mandatory orientation training
• 4) Attend your first-day facility tour
• Oct. 3: 100 Black Men College Scholarship Fair (9a-2pm in Chicago)
• Oct. 6: Service Academy Night (6pm in Peoria)
• Oct. 6: Choices Fair (6-8:30pm in Glenview) - for families looking for colleges with disability/support services
• Oct. 15: PowerForward DuPage Trades Expo (3:30-6:30p in Warrenville)
• Oct. 21: Christian College Fair (6-8pm in Elmhurst)
• Nov. 3: Student Election Night Judge (temporary work opportunity)

On September 13th, Freshmen will participate in our Counseling Curriculum Lesson on Career Cluster Exploration. After all Freshmen have received this lesson, we will share out the slides & handouts with Freshmen families.

On September 20th, Sophomores will participate in their first Counseling Curriculum Lesson on Career Exploration & Goal Setting. After all Sophomores have received this lesson, we will share out the slides & handouts with Sophomore families.

On September 8th, Juniors participated in our Counseling Curriculum Lesson on Postsecondary Planning. Students were presented these slides, and were also provided with a list of resources to help in looking ahead to Junior year.

Throughout the college application cycle, some institutions/states offer free application weeks (where students do not have to pay application fees). As we learn of new upcoming opportunities, we will post them here in Counselor Connection:

• Oct. 1 - 12: Arizona State Univ.
• Oct. 1 - Nov. 20: South Dakota Public Institutions
• Oct. 5 - 9: Univ. of Alabama
• Oct. 19 - Nov. 2: State Universities of New York (SUNY)

Public Act 101-180 requires all public high school students in the state of Illinois to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), or, as eligible, the Alternative Application for Illinois Financial Aid, as a prerequisite to receiving a high school diploma. A waiver provision allows a parent, guardian, or the student (if 18 years of age) to opt out for any reason.*

The federal government will open the FAFSA on October 1, 2026. However, there is an important initial step all families can do now so that when FAFSA is open, you will be able to get started.

Whether you're a student or parent, you'll need to create your own Federal Student Aid account.

Create Federal Student Aid (FSA) IDs for each "contributor," FAFSA's term for anyone who is required to provide information on a student's FAFSA form, including the student, a biological or adopted parent, or the parent's spouse. Contributors will need their Social Security number and phone number or email address to create an account. Use this tool to determine which parent(s) should participate in a student's FAFSA form.

Click here to create an FSA ID account.

*If a student is not eligible to file a FAFSA or a family chooses not to complete the FAFSA, an opt-out form must be completed to satisfy the graduation requirement.

Naperville 203 is hosting two FAFSA Workshops for families who would like assistance in completing the application. Families are welcome to attend whichever date works best. FSA accounts must be created and confirmed in order to attend this workshop. Please note that confirmation can take up to a week after the creation of an account.

FAFSA Workshop Dates

• Wednesday, October 28th from 6:30-8:00pm at NCHS
• Thursday, October 29th from 5:30pm-7:00pm at NNHS

College of DuPage is also offering FAFSA completion workshops and has provided this video to help students and families with a walkthrough on how to create an FSA ID.

Sophomores, Juniors & Seniors are welcome to attend college visits during the school day in The PARC beginning September 1st. Each year, we typically host 160+ college representatives. To attend a college visit, students must sign up in SchooLinks. Instructions can be found here. If students will be missing a class, they will need to get approval form their teacher and have a signed college visit from that teacher allowing them to attend the visit.

• To view a calendar of visits occurring in the next week, check out our College Visits Calendar.
• To view a list of all visits occurring throughout 1st semester, check out our College Visits List.

Why should your student attend a college visit?

• To learn more about a potential college of interest.
• To meet the admissions rep from the college.
  BONUS: This is typically the person who will be reading your application when you apply!

• To show demonstrated interest in applying/attending a college. Some colleges track this interest.
• To get questions answered about a college that you can't learn online.

Thank you to those who were able to join us Tuesday night for our evening about college admission testing. We hope you found the event informative and helpful. The slides and digital copy of the resource guide are linked below. We have a few extra copies of the resource guide in The PARC, if a student would like to stop by and have a physical copy.

Navigating College Admission Testing Slides

Compass Guide to College Admission Testing

The Technology Center of DuPage (TCD) offers DuPage County area high school juniors and seniors 17 career and technical education programs (CTE) as part of their high school curriculum. You can learn more about TCD from their promotional video. If your student is looking to learn more about TCD, they should sign-up for our TCD Explore WIN Session on Oct. 15th! If your students have questions, please have them reach out to their School Counselor or the PARC.

NCompass is Naperville 203's Postsecondary Planning Guide. We encourage you to utilize this tool to research and explore postsecondary options. We highly recommend checking out the checklists by grade level.

SchooLinks is Naperville 203's college & career planning platform. Students began using this platform in junior high and continue to use it in high school.

Parents and guardians can create a SchooLinks Guardian account to take advantage of all of the wonderful tools that SchooLinks has to offer. Guardians can view their child's progress on SchooLinks, see assessment results, view favorited careers and colleges, and much more. We encourage all guardians to have an account. To create a SchooLinks Guardian account, please follow the directions in this document.