Sanger High offers a variety of help with education and help preparing for college and future careers, but only one person on campus has the official role that focuses on help with college and career. The main focus for the “Guidance Instructional Specialist” is to make sure students have the necessary information to complete whatever task they work on regarding plans for college and career. Manny Herrera is our Guidance Instructional Specialist (GIS) with an emphasis on college and careers, but there are other responsibilities that come with Guidance Instructional Specialist to help the students prepare for their future.
“Then there is the in-between that takes a lot of follow-up with the students and sometimes the parents,” says Herrera when referring to some of his duties. Herrera has been the specialist for four years, and has been with the school district for nine years. As a high school GIS Herrera focuses on anyone who may be interested in any information about college.
“Mr. Herrera has helped me with my college applications as well as my financial aid. We can also explore scholarships and financial aid to make education more affordable,” says Alexis Cristobal, a senior at Sanger High School.
If you’re not a senior, there is no need to worry about where to get information about college because you can also get any pertinent information from our GIS.
“I work with all students of all grade levels. The main ones that take up most of my time are our seniors,” explains Hererra. Since he helps all students, it is best to know exactly how to get help when visiting Herrera.
“My main focus is to ask questions I’ll need answers to in the future, and to also get a head start of knowing when certain events will occur involving college,” said Cristobal. Our GIS is qualified to do his job as he has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in School Counseling along with a PPS credential. These credentials make him perfectly prepared for his role here at Sanger high as our counselor. There are also colleges that are the GIS has connections with
“Through the years I have built a great relationship with our local community colleges and universities, I have also started to expand through the different State universities and UC’s,” says Herrera. During the whole college application season that was pushed to seniors, Herrera invited different universities to come and speak to our seniors about their school that they were interested in attending. They gave more information about their respective campuses.
Our seniors would like to have our counselor connected with the colleges like “Fresno State, local Community Colleges, but also local Universities,” according to Cristobal.
The easiest and best way to get help from our GIS is by sending Remind messages to Herrera and asking for information about college and career information.
“I have Google Forms that I created for students to sign up for help, but I think they get ignored like some of my Remind messages,” said Herrera.
Students who see and utilize the Reminds sent from Herrera will like to say“Our college counseling is there to help you navigate the big decisions and give you a head start on your next chapter, ” says Cristobal. The main thing our counselor wants our students to know is to not be afraid to ask questions that they need answered.
“Don’t ignore my Remind messages as they are super helpful. I send out information that you need to know. Most of the time…. ” said Herrera. Herrera can be reached via Remind with the join code @apaches24 .
