Viewpoint counselors help prepare students for college

GOOD ADVICE—Viewpoint college counselors, from left, Stephanie Shapiro, Rhody Davis and Amanda Fitts help guide students of the Calabasas campus into some of the country's finest universities. The college counselors at Viewpoint School have helped this year's class of more than 100 graduates gain acceptance into some of the nation's top universities.

Rhody Davis, director of college counseling, and counselors Stephanie Shapiro and Amanda Fitts worked as university admissions officers before joining the Calabasas private school.

"We have three superb counselors," said Robert Dworkoski, the school's headmaster.

Davis, a former admissions officer at the University of Chicago, says the goal of the Viewpoint counselors is to build close relationships with the students and their families so that the "right" college can be selected.

"It's very individualized," Davis said. "We promote selfdiscovery within a student so they are in a better position to make decisions about the future."

Group meetings with students are conducted at every grade level, but serious academic advisement starts in the sophomore year. By their junior year, the students are honing in on specific college choices.

At Viewpoint, the ratio of students to counselors is 35-to-one starting in 10th grade.

The outcome for the 2009 graduating class was spectacular, Dworkoski said.

The 110 students graduating this Saturday gained acceptance into 166 colleges and universities including prestigious institutions such as Stanford, Caltech, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Cornell, Dartmouth College and a host of others. Students were also accepted into all University of California schools, including UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego.

The college counseling office provides a firsthand look at the admissions process at its annual Case Studies Program for juniors and their parents. At the event, a nationwide panel of college admissions officers leads participants though a mock meeting with an admissions committee with actual, but anonymous, college applications.

A College Counseling Summer Institute helps students entering their senior year conduct research on colleges, complete applications, write essays and polish their interviewing skills. The students meet with admissions representatives from colleges, which helps them get a jump-start on the lengthy process before college applications are due in the fall.

Another program that gives Viewpoint students a boost is the school's College Day in which 100 college admissions representatives meet with students. In the spring the school sponsors tours of colleges on the East Coast and in California, Davis said.

"When students apply to college they are well-prepared and well-informed," Davis said. "They bring pretty powerful transcripts to the universities. . . . They had many Advanced Placement and honors classes and many opportunities for leadership on campus."

Viewpoint is among the first schools in the United States to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh's international youth program, which was established by the British royal family in 1956.

Completing the program is the equivalent of becoming an Eagle Scout, Dworkoski said.

"It challenges students in a number of areas, (from) community service, outdoor adventures and developing new skills themselves," he said.

The 23 students who won Duke of Edinburgh gold medals completed a residential project in which they spend five consecutive nights and four days in an unfamiliar residential setting with a group of strangers working towards a common goal.

Viewpoint School in Calabasas is a nondenominational, coeducational school of 1,200 students in kindergarten through grade 12