For the first time, college and career counselor Brooke Prestidge organized a college and career information night open to all students and parents. Located in the FHN Commons from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m, the career night will consist of different opportunities to visit with individual information tables and presentations.

“I feel like it’ll be really beneficial, and it’ll be really beneficial for me to be more aware of college and more of higher education and the future out of high school and to get ready,” junior Juan Alega said.

Students will be able to visit individual tables anytime during the time span of the info night. These tables include information ranging from financial aid to highly selective colleges to military academies.

“I think they’ll benefit just by gathering information that they might not be aware of and hearing about different paths that they might not be familiar with,” Prestidge said. “Instead of thinking that a four year college is the only way to go, they can choose some other things that their student might be interested in.”

There will also be a variety of presentations throughout the night, and students can pick three different presentation sessions they’d like to attend during the evening.

“If well attended that would be awesome,” Counseling Department Chair Lisa Woodrum said. “The best outcome is that students and families come in this evening [tonight] and that helps our students with their next steps towards being independent, responsible adults in our community.”

By offering the college and career night in the fall when college searching is in its prime time, Prestidge hopes to increase attendance to the event in order to expose as many students as possible to all of their post-high school possibilities.

“I like being able to expose students and parents to a lot of different options,” Prestidge said. “I know that there is a strong push right now that all students should start at a four year college, and I really don’t think that is the best fit for everyone. I think that it is more important to find the best fit, and so I’m hoping that nights like this can make people aware of all of the different options because there are a lot of different options, so I want both parents and students to hear about those options.”