The beginning of the school year was not only the start of SJHHS for members of the freshmen class, but also for newly minted academic advisor Elise Butler.

This is Butler’s first year being an academic advisor at a high school, but before joining the staff at SJHHS Butler was an academic advisor at Arroyo Vista Middle School.

“I saw that there was a position, and I had always wanted to get back to high school. I also knew what a nice school San Juan is, so I applied for the job,” said Butler.

Before becoming an academic advisor, Butler worked with Educational Partnership High School in Long Beach, California as a teacher.

“I love the high school age. It is such a fun age because you guys are becoming adults and have a great sense of humor. There’s also so much growth at the high school age and I love being a part of it,” said Butler.

Butler is an academic advisor to students with last names from Ol to Sep. “They spliced apart the alphabet and each academic advisor got a certain amount of students, so all the advisors have some new students this year,” said Butler.

With the arrival of a new academic advisor, some seniors have been moved from the advisor that they have had for the last three years to an entirely different one. These seniors have voiced concerns regarding their letter of recommendation for college. This recommendation letter is a very important piece of the application process that is required by many schools, and it is meant to be written by an advisor that knows the applicant well enough to write a detailed essay about them.

To address this issue, the original academic advisors of those seniors that have had been moved to a different advisor will still be able to have there letter of recommendation written by the advisor they have known for the majority of their time at SJHHS.