Dana Zahorik (’93) on College Counseling as a Vocation

By Kim Westerman

Dana Zahorik, a self-described “Mama’s girl” in her youth, wanted to go to college at 17 knowing she wanted to be a college counselor. After a high school experience in which she did everything from cheerleading to the ski club, she entered UWSP as a pre-law major, but in her heart, she wanted to put her curiosity and need for diverse experiences to work in a more specific way: supporting undergrads as they chart their academic paths and holding space for them to manifest their dreams.

Unfortunately and ironically, she was deterred by a high school guidance counselor who suggested that, because she was highly skilled in typing, he encouraged her to go to stenography school. While she felt deflated, she also felt intimidated, and she went to undergrad school unsettled about what her future held.

When she got to Point, she suddenly found herself a little fish in a big pond, and still a teenager, to boot. Because her father had lost their logging business during her first year, her family couldn’t help her much with tuition and other bills, so she waited tables to make ends meet. A turning point for Zahorik that allowed her to find her own north star was Dr. Mark Plonsky’s Psychology course, which had over 300 enrolled students. The girl who’d been third in her Elcho High graduating class was now swimming in a sea of academic possibility, not knowing her own place in it. She had rendered herself invisible in this “pit class” and was talking with her best friend, admittedly not paying much attention to the material, when Dr. Plonsky noticed her inattention and engaged her. After class, he talked with her about the disconnect between her pre-law track and her true desires. He also noticed she was struggling and asked the question, “how do you study?” That’s when Zahorik’s adult life came together — her career was launched in that exchange. She changed her major to Psychology with a Human Services emphasis, and she’s never looked back.

She says, “Dr. Plonsky took the time to notice the red flags. I had gone from having a 3.8 GPA in high school to a 2.0 during my freshman year at Point. This simple but profound question — not ‘do you study, but how’ helped me anchor myself in my own values as a student while making way for my professional desire to help others in a similar position.” And it launched her career in college counseling, something Dr. Plonsky encouraged immediately. Zahorik took every class he offered, building her confidence along the way. And it’s not lost on her that while it was a high school guidance counselor who had discouraged her dreams, it was Plonsky who became her academic advisor at Point and supported her as she carved her path.

She is now the Director of Advising Services and Retention Initiatives at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she is thriving and helping others thrive as they forge their way. Her team of 15 is aligned with the philosophy of collaborating with students to navigate their lives with grace and gentleness, listening and offering practical academic while creating a caring environment for them. Her philosophy is to meet students where they are at, which means we must be open to constant change, going the extra mile to create a supportive and caring culture for them to thrive, and help them steer around unexpected obstacles.