🌳 Welcome to Junior Year: Strengthen Your Roots & Envision the Future
Junior year is a time of deepening—your academic growth continues, and your vision for life after high school starts to come into clearer focus. This is one of the most important years for preparing your next steps, whether that means college, career, military service, or technical training.
🧭 School Counselor: Your Guide on the Journey
Your school counselor is here to help you navigate this season of planning, decision-making, and personal growth. Be sure to stay connected—they’ll support you with:
- College and career exploration
- Academic planning and testing strategies
- Wellness and personal development
🌿 Wellness Check: Nurture Every Root
— Expand to explore key areas of personal growth and health. These are like the roots of a tree—when they are strong, you are too.
🌱 Physical Health
A strong tree needs a healthy trunk and branches—your physical health supports everything else you do. Explore tips for sleep, nutrition, exercise, and more:
🔗 Healthy Children – Teen Health
🌙 Sleep
Sleep fuels growth, learning, and resilience. Teens need 8–10 hours a night—don’t shortchange this vital root system.
🔗 Sleep Foundation – Teens and Sleep
💻 Digital Wellbeing
How we use technology shapes our minds and hearts. Cultivate a healthy digital environment with these tools:
🔗 Center for Humane Technology
🔗 Common Sense Media
💬 Mental Health
Mental and emotional wellness is like the inner bark of a tree—it protects and sustains you. Reach out, reflect, and take care of yourself:
🔗 The Jed Foundation
🔗 Child Mind Institute
🕊️ Spiritual Health
Your spiritual life is a deep root that grounds your identity, purpose, and connection. Whether through prayer, reflection, service, or community, nurturing this area brings peace and direction. Start by exploring opportunities within your faith community or nearby youth groups.
💰 Financial Stability
Just like roots provide a stable foundation for a tree, managing your money wisely lays the groundwork for a secure future. Learning to budget, save, and avoid unnecessary debt is crucial as you step into adulthood.
🔗 Ramsey Solutions – Teach Teenagers About Money
🏃 Exercise for Teens
Regular exercise strengthens your body and mind, boosting energy, focus, and mood. The CDC recommends teens get at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily.
🔗 CDC – Recommendations for Youth
🍎 Nutrition for Teens
Proper nutrition fuels your growth and helps maintain energy and focus throughout the day. Eating a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins is key during your teen years.
🔗 ChooseMyPlate – Healthy Eating
🔗 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics – Nutrition for Teens
📘 The 7 Habits for Teens
Based on Stephen Covey’s bestselling book, the 7 Habits teach teens practical skills for personal leadership, responsibility, and success. These habits encourage building strong character and healthy relationships.
- Be Proactive: Take responsibility for your actions and choices.
- Begin with the End in Mind: Set clear goals and plan ahead.
- Put First Things First: Prioritize important tasks over urgent distractions.
- Think Win-Win: Seek mutually beneficial solutions in relationships.
- Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood: Listen empathetically before sharing your viewpoint.
- Synergize: Collaborate to achieve better results than alone.
- Sharpen the Saw: Take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
🔗 FranklinCovey – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
🎭 Extracurricular Activities
Your involvement outside of class helps shape who you are. Whether it’s sports, arts, volunteering, robotics, or work—do what matters to you. Find your lane and give it your best. We encourage quality over quantity.
🎯 Big Picture: What’s Next After High School?
— Expand to explore tools that help you reflect, discover, and plan for your future.
It’s so important to start with the big picture—where you are now and where you’re going next. The big question you may be facing is:
“What am I going to do after high school?”
Your school counselor is a key partner in helping you explore this. They may offer a variety of tools and resources tailored to you. Here are some that many students find incredibly helpful:
🛣️ Roadtrip Nation
This site offers an inspiring free course to help you explore your interests, values, and career paths through videos and guided reflection. It even includes an opportunity to interview someone working in a field you’re curious about.
🔗 Roadtrip Nation – Discover Your Path
🧭 Career Interest Assessment
Tools like My Next Move can help you explore your interests and match them to potential careers. It’s a great starting point to see what aligns with your natural interests.
🔗 My Next Move – Career Interest Assessment
🧠 Personality Assessment
Understanding your personality can help you find career fields that align with how you naturally think and interact with the world. The 16 Personalities assessment is a great free resource based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
🔗 16 Personalities – Discover Your Type
🔬 YouScience
YouScience combines both your interests and aptitudes to provide personalized career suggestions. Many schools offer this tool through their counseling office. If not, you can access it independently with a discount using the affiliate code below.
🔗 YouScience – Explore Your Strengths
💬 Use promotion code: GROWYOURROOTS at checkout for a discount.
👥 Job Shadowing
Spending time observing someone in a real-world job setting is one of the best ways to gain insight into a field. Even if it’s not your dream job, it will help you understand what you do or don’t enjoy—and bring more clarity to what matters most in your future career.
🗺️ Outline Your Next Steps
Once you’ve narrowed your path, it’s time to outline action steps for the year ahead. Expand the sections below for a deeper look at each path.
🎓 College Prep
— Expand to explore research, testing, and planning steps for college-bound students.
🔍 Researching Colleges
Explore academic programs, cost, campus culture, and fit. Visit our College Research Page for a step-by-step guide.
🧪 Testing Strategy
SAT – Take the SAT during junior year. If you finished Algebra 2 in 10th grade, aim for fall and spring testing. If you’re in Algebra 2 this year, test late spring and again in summer before senior year.
ACT – Try the ACT at least once to see if it suits your strengths.
🔗 ACT
PSAT – Prepares you for the SAT and qualifies you for National Merit.
📚 Test Prep
🔗 Khan Academy SAT Prep – The official partner of College Board offers very helpful test prep.
📹 Video: How to use your SAT score report with Khan Academy
🧭 College Visits
Visit colleges in person or virtually. Spring break and summer are ideal times to tour campuses and get a feel for different environments.
👀 Preview Senior Year
Check out the 12th Grade Page to know what’s coming next year.
🛠️ Vocational & Technical Programs
— Expand to explore rewarding career paths outside of traditional college.
👷♂️ Fields to Explore
Construction, HVAC, welding, automotive, diesel tech, health tech, culinary, IT, cosmetology, and more.
🧰 Getting Started
- Attend local program open houses and job fairs
- Visit training centers and tech colleges
- Shadow a student or employee for a day
- Dress professionally and ask questions
Start early to build momentum and get a sense of what path might be right for you.
🎖️ Military Path
— Expand to learn about service, benefits, and how to get started.
The military offers training, travel, leadership, and financial aid like the GI Bill. It’s a powerful way to serve and build a future.
🪖 Explore Your Options
- 🔗 Army
- 🔗 Navy
- 🔗 Air Force
- 🔗 Marines
- 🔗 Coast Guard
- 🔗 Space Force
🧪 Take the ASVAB
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery helps place you in a role that fits your skills.
👥 Talk to Veterans
Ask veterans about their experiences—what they gained, what was challenging, and what they learned.