Grand Junction High School counselors are keeping busy with students seeking to change their second-semester schedule while also being available for distressed students.
Along with the typical changes of a new semester, counselors are beyond busy making changes to students’ schedules and listening to teenagers who struggle with mental health talk about their thoughts.
“They’re really busy, and that’s a lot of kids to talk to every day,” sophomore Sienna Ludlan said.
Since GJHS is close to its capacity with more than 1,800 students this year, more students than ever might be coming to the counselors with issues other than regular class schedule changes.
“Since we have gotten back, so as a team, we’ve met with 449 kids [as of Jan. 14, 2025],” said GJHS counselor Meghan Ventling, who works with students with last names O-Sg.
Ventling is a new face in the counseling office this year, having come to GJHS from Palisade High School. With the new semesters and the approach of preparing for next year’s freshmen, she has already encountered her share of busy seasons.
Ventling explained, “A lot of our things are kind of seasonal so we’ll start planning for middle school visits pretty soon where we’ll be visiting middle schools to talk with them about coming to Junction and we’ll start working with our current students on scheduling for next year so it’s kind of like this cycle of the things we do.”
Some students have found it harder to contact their counselors. Emails sometimes go unanswered, and counselors are occasionally unavailable when they arrive at the office.
“Maybe having a more efficient way of kids being able to contact their counselors or just getting more counselors just cause there’s so many kids in the school this year,” Ludlan suggested.
On the GJHS website, under departments and counseling (linked here), there is a form that students can fill out to meet with a counselor. In the “description for request” textbox, students can describe why they need to meet. If the request is for a simple fix, like a schedule change, the change can be made easily.
“Something that would be great for students to know though is that if they have a specific request, the more specific they can be when they make it the easier it is for us to be able to identify what to do,” said Ventling.
