March 13, 2025
By Nicolle Alvarez
Staff Writer
Between college applications, scholarships and career choices, planning for the future can feel daunting. Naviance is here to simplify the process.
Naviance is a college and career planning platform with over 100 features, including academic planning, college research, college application tracking and career exploration. LHS students had access to Naviance from 2016-2018, but the school district had to cancel its subscription due to budget cuts. This spring, LHS is reintroducing the software, which costs $9,953 for a year and is available to all students.
School counselor Ms. Truncellito said Naviance is a useful resource.
“The process of applying to college can be very overwhelming, and I think Naviance takes a lot of that overwhelming feeling and streamlines it into a much more organized system,” Truncellito said. “This tool will allow [school counselors] to provide information in smaller chunks over four years so students have a better understanding of the options they have in how to research colleges.”
“I am hoping Naviance will help me with my college and career search since I am really lost and need help making my future decisions.”
Truncellito said Naviance has features suited to the needs of all high school students. For instance, she said freshmen can take a personality test to help them understand their learning styles, and sophomores can take a quiz to identify careers that might be suitable for them. Then, juniors can use results from past tests to identify prospective colleges and universities, post-secondary programs and scholarships that best fit their credentials and needs.
Truncellito said the platform helps seniors decide which colleges and universities to apply to.
“Naviance can tell the student based on their GPA and their SAT scores if the college they are looking at is considered to be a safety school, a target school or a reach school,” Truncellito said.
She said Naviance can even assist students planning to go into the military because it offers them the chance to practice taking the ASVAB, a test that the military uses to place students into roles that fit their skill levels.
Truncellito said students will be able to access their Naviance profiles for seven years after graduating LHS.
“They can pull up their letters of recommendation or their high school transcript in case they ever want to transfer universities or [apply] for a new job,” Truncellito said.
Throughout this month, freshmen, sophomores and juniors will receive training on using Naviance. They will learn more about the platform in their health and physical education classes, and juniors will receive training in small groups on March 13 based on their last name. Seniors will not get any specific training, but, like all LHS students, they can access Naviance’s tools through Clever.com.
Junior Chloe Sanchez said Naviance will assist her as she prepares to pursue a bachelor’s degree in fashion marketing.
“Since that is not a common career, I think Naviance will help me find schools that are the best fit for my career of choice,” Sanchez said. “I am hoping Naviance will help me have more direction on what to do when it comes to my education and career.”
Sanchez said she is glad the district is investing in Naviance.
“I have not used Naviance yet, but… I like the idea of having my status in one place for college,” Sanchez said.
Junior Michael Monahan said he expects Naviance to be a good resource for students from all grade levels.
“I have changed my mind about four times on what I want to do after high school. If I were a freshman or sophomore being introduced to this, I would be more confident [about] what I want to do,” Monahan said.
He said he looks forward to exploring the platform.
“I am hoping Naviance will help me with my college and career search since I am really lost and need help making my future decisions,” Monahan said. “I will definitely use it. It will be free, and the features it provides will be very useful.”
