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Counseling

Notre Dame High School Parent/Counselor Coffee - Thursday, March 13 7:00 AM – 7:45 AM

The Notre Dame High School Counseling Staff invite you to attend the next informational coffee on standardized testing. This brief, 45 minute session will cover the topics of ACT, PSAT, PLAN, EXPLORE, and AP exams. Please join us and take this opportunity to speak with the counseling staff and other parents about your questions and thoughts on standardized testing, all while enjoying a cup of coffee and a light breakfast in the Holy Cross Center Dining Room.

The Student Counseling Center

Mission Statement

The primary purpose of the Student Counseling Center is to support the mission of Notre Dame High School by promoting and enhancing the fulfillment of the whole person with respect to each student's development in faith, scholarship, and social responsibility. The Counseling Center promotes this student development in three major ways:

1. Offering counseling and consultation services in support of students' academic, career, and personal/social development
2. Working collaboratively and as a team with parents, faculty, administration, and other individuals necessary in the support of student development
3. Modeling the values of faith, scholarship, and social responsibility in our roles as professional helpers.

With the spirit of Fr. Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, we believe that the formation of the heart, as well as the mind, is central in the education of our young men.

Counselor Responsibilities

Students are assigned alphabetically to a counselor and remain with him/her from freshman through senior year. The college counselor will also meet with seniors and provide programs for juniors and their parents. This is a sampling of the services provided by the Counseling Center:

1. Academic Development - supervise class registration; link students to Andre Center resources; promote behavior and skills for successful learning (e.g., time management, strategies for reading, coping with test anxiety); arrange staffings; provide information about tutoring.
2. Career Development - explore the relationship among learning, school, and work; teach students how to locate and interpret college and work information; teach students strategies for making decisions, setting goals, and developing plans.
3. Personal/Social Development - help students cope with the school environment (e.g., relationships with teachers, peers, and responsibilities); mediate conflicts; help students identify alternative solutions to problems; teach students strategies for managing stress and conflict.
4. College Counseling - conduct Junior Insights, Senior Transitions, and Financial Aid Nights for students and parents; coordinate visits by college representatives and athletic coaches; process student college and scholarship applications; write college recommendations; provide information (e.g., College Guidance Procedure Handbook and Financial Aid Handbook; coordinate NCAA Clearing house 48H Form.
5. Standardized Testing - coordinate and administer standardized testing (PLAN, PSAT, ACT, SAT, AP exams); recommend resources for test preparation.
   

Appointments

Appointments are scheduled for students on school days between 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Special meeting times are available upon request. Students are also welcome to visit their counselor without an appointment. If she/he is not available, students are encouraged to leave a note in the counseling center or contact their counselor by e-mail. Counselors are also available to meet with parents before, during, or after school. Parents are encouraged to call for an appointment to make sure the counselor is available.

Statement of Confidentiality

Information shared with the counselors is kept confidential unless the student or family grant verbal or written permission for disclosure. Exceptions to confidentiality include imminent danger of either self-imposed harm or intent of harming another. We are also mandated to report any signs of abuse. The director or principal may also be consulted in crisis situations in order to provide better services for the student and his family.

Counseling Center Staff

The following are brief biographies of the Counseling staff for the 2007-2008 school year.

Joan Daul joins the Counseling Center as a generalist Counselor and comes to Notre Dame from Cristo Rey High School where she was a Counselor. Her Bachelors degree is from Marquette University in Communications, and she has a Masters degree in School Counseling from National-Louis University. Mrs. Daul has an excellent understanding of adolescents with her experiences at Christo Rey Jesuit High School, Highland Park High School, the Connections Drop-In Center for meeting the mental health needs of young people, and as a parent.

Jason Kuffel had spent the last two years as a counselor at Prospect High School before coming to Notre Dame as our new college counselor. He has a Bachelors degree from Loras College in Sociology and Criminal Justice and a Masters degree in Counselor Education from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville. Mr. Kuffel played baseball for Loras College and for the United States International Baseball Team. He has coached high school baseball and basketball and brings an enormous amount of energy and motivation to the counseling center.

Dr. Anne Martin came to Notre Dame in the fall of 2002 as a member of Notre Dame’s new Counseling Center. She has a Bachelors degree in English from the University of Notre Dame and an MD (Doctor of Medicine) from the Medical College of Wisconsin. She had training and background in adolescent psychiatry during medical school and one year as a mental health worker with the Holy Cross Associates in Colorado Springs. She offers something unique to high school counseling because Dr. Martin has a background integrating both a faith and biopsychosocial understanding of youth.

Steve Murray has been at Notre Dame since the fall of 2004. He has a Bachelors degree in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and two Masters degrees from Northeastern Illinois University in Educational Administration and School Counseling. Mr. Murray has been Director of Summer School the past two years and developed our initiative in on-line learning through the Illinois Virtual High School. Before changing careers into school counseling, Mr. Murray coached swimming at the junior college level. There he coached over twenty-five National Junior College Athletic Association All-American swimmers and was picked as Coach of the Year, NJCAA Region IV, during three different years.

Dr. Chuck Pistorio came to Notre Dame in the fall of 2002 as Director of the Counseling Center. He has a Bachelors degree in Psychology and Masters degree in School Counseling from Western Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. Dr. Pistorio is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and associate professor in Counselor Education at Northeastern Illinois University. Before becoming a university professor, he was Director of Guidance and Counseling, and an adjunct faculty member in Counseling Psychology, at Northwestern University. Dr. Pistorio was also director of The Cove Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation advancing an understanding of students with learning disabilities.

Marie Prugar has a Bachelors degree in Psychological Services from St. Joseph’s College and a Masters degree in School Counseling from Northeastern Illinois University. She recently interned and served as a half-time counselor for one year at St. Benedict High School after several years of teaching and working in other schools. Besides being a parent, Mrs. Prugar is a Eucharistic Minister and has been a teacher, advisor, and librarian at a number of schools, including St. Francis Borgia and St. Tarcissus.

Yeonhee Han joined the Counseling Center as a consultant in the spring of 2003 to help Notre Dame understand the needs and issues of a group of students from Korea. This became a full-time position when she helped create the St. Andrew Kim Dae-Gon Scholar Program. Mrs. Han has been instrumental in growing the program to over 25 international students, including students from South Korea, Mexico, Austria, Poland, Viet Nam and Thailand. Mrs. Han has a Bachelors degree in Educational Psychology from the Ewha Women's University, Korea, a Masters degree in Psychology from Korea University, and a Masters in School Counseling from Northeastern Illinois University.