COMPASSIONATE COUNSELING

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February 8, 2022 

For information on enrollment and registration at Notre Dame, please visit the admissions section of our website here.

NDP counseling office restructures, adds staff to address students’ academic, social and mental health needs.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic swept through Southeast Michigan, Notre Dame Preparatory School administrators were concerned about their students’ mental and emotional health. The last two years escalated several issues, giving administrators pause to rethink how they could better support the needs of the most vulnerable.

Beyond COVID, students have been dealing with trauma related to social media usage, family and relationship issues, academics, social isolation, and the challenges of juggling a busy schedule of schoolwork and extracurricular activities. That is why during the 2021-2022 school year, the decision was made to invest more staff and resources in the department to better support students’ social and emotional needs.

“Social media is huge. It gives kids the ability to say things to each other that they wouldn't normally have said to somebody in person. They base their personality on likes and shares and that can have a negative impact on their day-to-day interactions,” NDP Principal Kim Anderson said.

The department is led by Vlado Salic and previously consisted of four full-time guidance counselors who focused primarily on academic advising and career and college exploration to prepare students for the transition to college. That work included SAT/ACT prep, job shadowing opportunities, college application essay advising, study skills, and time management.

“Over the years, the demand for personal counseling has increased steadily,” Salic said. “COVID, social media, the Oxford High School shooting have all exacerbated those needs and the immediacy to meet our students where they are at. We were finding ourselves meeting more and more with students about personal issues; it was hardly ever about college stuff.”

In January, the team brought on Andrew Durkin, a full-time academic interventionist, and a fifth counselor, Elizabeth Stibich, who previously served as a behavioral health clinician at Hart Middle School in Rochester Hills. There, she was responsible for student preventive education, group and individual therapy, crisis intervention, substance abuse counseling and prevention, and nutrition education and suicide prevention.

With the restructuring, all high school students will now meet with two counselors throughout their four years at NDP. Salic and fellow counselor Margie Bond will handle the collegiate side of the student experience, while counselors Jason Whalen, Denise Mahoney, and Stibich will address the social, emotional, and academic (SEA) needs of students. To prepare for the transition, counselors met with students when they returned from Christmas break and then allowed students to choose which SEA counselor they felt most comfortable meeting with on a regular basis.

Additionally, students who are identified as needing extra academic support would then be referred to Durkin, who monitors their progress in the classroom, identifies those who are having learning issues or other academic problems, and works with teachers, students, and parents to develop a special plan to address these issues.

“Andy (Durkin) will help students with everything from organizational skills to more in-depth support in reading comprehension skills or math problem-solving skills,” Yaroch said.

Mission-driven students

A driving factor in the reorganization was administrators’ decision to evaluate what it means to be a mission-driven student—a Christian person, upright citizen and academic scholar.

“We were seeing places where we could be doing better in respect to each of those areas,” Yaroch said. “I would say the counseling department works very well addressing the second and third parts of our mission but part of being a Christian person is about how you treat others and how you respond to how you are being treated. We felt that to better meet the needs of our students and better address the full mission of our school, it made sense to do some shuffling around.”

The spiritual, emotional, and mental support of students have been top of mind for administrators for years, Anderson said. It was a driving reason behind the school’s change to a new class schedule that was rolled out in the 2019-2020 academic year.

The schedule provides more time for students to meet with advisors, catch up on homework, or attend presentations, and divides the curriculum into an A/B schedule with four classes per day.

“During community time we teach our students the skills they need to be a well-rounded person when they leave us,” Anderson said. “The changes to the counseling department are just an extension of what we’ve already been doing.”

For instance, student activities that take place during “community time” at NDP on Mondays, aptly named “Marist Mondays,” focus on cultivating what it means to be a Christian person to others. Additional activities focus on diversity, equity and inclusion issues as well as students’ relationship with God, while the “Find Your Grind” program, led by the counseling office, helps students figure out who they are and where they want to go by flipping the script on traditional career planning and focusing on a lifestyle-first approach.

Head of School Andrew Guest said allocating more resources to the counseling department will ensure students are better prepared for challenges both in life and in college once they leave Notre Dame. The holistic care of students was a key discussion point among administrators when the school began planning its budget this year. He pointed to the importance of the Notre Dame Fund, which supports the school’s operating budget in three key areas—everyday moments for students, teaching excellence, and financial aid for deserving families, when it comes to adding new staff. 

“The success of the Notre Dame Fund is the primary vehicle for driving school improvement each year. Donations help us to address both the current and future needs of the school. Over the past two years, we have seen an increasing demand in counseling services,” he said.  “In the old days, our counselors focused primarily on college placement. Now, they are spending most of their time managing the social and emotional needs of our students. Gifts to the Fund help us invest resources where needed most and right now student welfare and safety are among the highest priorities.”

For information on enrollment and registration at Notre Dame, please visit the admissions section of our website here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.