LINCOLN – The Nebraska State College System (NSCS) named Dan Koziol as the 2018 NSCS Counseling Excellence Award winner. Koziol is the K-12 School Counselor at Twin River Public Schools in Genoa, Nebraska.
“High school counselors play a vital role in the college search process,” said Stan Carpenter, Chancellor of the NSCS. “We are thankful to have counselors like Mr. Koziol helping students explore opportunities after high school and identifying the best fit for their future.”
The NSCS Counseling Excellence Award is an annual award created to honor counselors for exemplary service and commitment to students. Students at Chadron, Peru and Wayne State Colleges have the opportunity to nominate high school counselors for the award.
As an alumnus of Wayne State College (WSC), Mr. Koziol understands firsthand the benefits in receiving a Nebraska State College System degree, and promotes accessibility to higher education to students at all grade levels. He is a strong advocate of admissions representative visits to his school, and participates in most of those visits, in order to gather information about opportunities at each college. He encourages his students to ask questions and engage with the admissions representatives to ensure they learn as much as they can, while they can. He never wants his students to feel like higher education is intimidating. Koziol hosts a College Planning Night for his upper-level students at the beginning of the school year, so they can learn what steps they should take in their college search, including: evaluating their options, being familiar with important processes, and key deadlines right away.
He does not hesitate to reach out to his admissions contacts with questions, to learn more, or to check on the status of a student’s application. While on campus, he connects Twin River students with alumni attending and/or working on campus that can speak more truly to their experiences at Twin River and why they chose to pursue higher education.
Koziol also strongly believes in students experiencing college campuses at a young age. His middle school students have benefited from a campus visit during eighth grade for several years.
Mr. Koziol is an advocate for higher education and for his students and the Nebraska State College System’s 2018 Counseling Excellence Award winner.
