A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David L. Marcus explains how one Naviance Network member in Oyster Bay (Long Island, New York) helps calm anxiety for students and families.

Gwyeth Smith Jr., director of guidance at Oyster Bay High School, has helped to demystify college admissions for thousands of students and, most important, has helped students to learn more about themselves in the process of applying. In Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Students Find the Right College – and Find Themselves, Marcus, a reporter for Long Island's Newsday newspaper and a former education writer for U.S. News & World Report, chronicles Smith's work over two years focusing on seven students and their families whom Smith helps through one of the most challenging of life's decisions. As part of his efforts to ensure that students and families are well informed, Marcus points out that Smith "had made sure that Oyster Bay was one of the first districts in the area to buy software called Naviance, which displayed scattergrams with students' scores and GPAs and a summary of where they'd been accepted or rejected."

Naviance is proud to support the work of Gwyeth Smith and the more than 40,000 other Naviance Network members who work tirelessly to ensure that all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Please see the excerpt from Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Students Find the Right College – and Find Themselves, featured in National Public Radio's "Planning For College Often Met With Expense, Anxiety" on npr.org.