Mr. Corey Ostling has left his role as guidance counselor to become the new post high school and career counselor. Ostling will have to face some new tasks this year because this new position focuses more on students’ paths after they graduate high school.

All students will now see Ostling for assistance in areas including deciding between college and trade school and military, college admissions, and proper course selection to set them up for future success.

This position has been added to both Normal West and Normal Community this summer as a measure to set up Unit 5 students, seniors and freshman alike, with a plan to achieve goals to help take them where they want to go.

The addition of the position was in response of a bill passed in Illinois within recent years that stated the idea that high schools need to do a better job of preparing their students for after high school, and that is exactly what administration had in mind.

“We need to make sure that our students are college and career ready” stated Normal West Principal Dave Johnson, “to help make sure that could happen, we knew we needed more people to help with that push.”

With this being such a new position, there are still some things to be learned, but the vision for the future for Mr. Ostling is clear.

“This year I’m really going to be focusing on freshman and seniors” says Ostling, “Seniors because they need that extra support, and freshman so we can implement a four year plan so that kids aren’t feeling so helpless their senior  year.”

Ostling will see every freshman this year on late starts and he will give presentations about creating a plan for their upcoming years. It is also expected that he will see more seniors than he did in the past.

Mr. Ostling, as well as Mr. Johnson, hopes to see students of all grade levels seeking out Mr. Ostling as the years go on, but as of right now they’re taking things one step at a time