In most professions, much of the work takes place behind the scenes. You don’t see how many hours your favorite athlete spends practicing or working out. You don’t see all the rehearsals your favorite actor or actress completes. You don’t see how many medical journals your doctor reads, how many hours a chef spends perfecting her dishes, or the training a pilot must complete before he can take passengers airborne.

High school counselors are no different.

Students, you likely see your counselor only a few times a year, maybe for an occasional college planning meeting, an application workshop, or some other school event in which she participates.

But you don’t see how much time counselors spend trying to keep up with all the changes in college admissions. You don’t see them participating in counselor message boards, attending conferences, or reaching out to colleagues to compare best practices.

You don’t see them poring over admissions data from last year’s class, preparing letters of recommendation, organizing presentations, writing newsletters, updating the information on the school website, or placing calls to—and fielding calls from—colleges.

You don’t see them organizing visits from college reps, maintaining a library of college-related information, or managing the application-related support systems they use in their office.

And most importantly, you don’t see the multitude of non-college-related responsibilities that most high school counselors are expected to be responsible for.

Before you close out the school year, take the time to say thank you to your counselor. If you’ve already adjourned for the summer, drop your counselor an email. Acknowledge that you know how busy they are and how much they’re doing for students, even if you and your classmates don’t always see it firsthand.

The work you don’t see is part of the job, and most counselors I know do it willingly. They work on your behalf, and they deserve your thanks for that work, whether or not you can see it.