National School Counselors Week took place last week in honor of school counselors all over the country. According to schoolcounselor.org, this celebration of counselors is being held “to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems.”
The counselors that serve Northwood currently are Telisa Hunter, Sonia Logan, Ciera Dixon and Melissa Weiss. Senior Jordan Pollard said that there was a “need” for there to be a week honoring school counselors.
“[The counselors at Northwood] have helped me with any issues I’ve had with teachers; they’ve helped me get out of classes; they’ve helped me find classes, especially online classes; that’s how I met Ms. Hunter actually,” Pollard said. “[Sophomore year], I wanted to take an online class and she helped me with that, and she’s just been wonderful; they’ve all been wonderful.”
Hunter described the best part of her job as the “successes.”
“I like seeing kids who chose a school… and then got in,” Hunter said. “I’ve had kids over the years who never thought they could go to college [but] we worked and got them in…. For some kids it’s clearly just graduating from high school that is a major accomplishment, and we all celebrate those kinds of accomplishments. Successes are my favorite. And then, of course, the relationships with the students.”
Logan’s favorite part about her job mirrored Hunter’s.
“My favorite part about being a school counselor is the students,” Logan said. “These are the best kids I’ve worked with; I love high school students.”
Even though their favorite parts about their jobs are the same, their reasons for becoming school counselors are different.
“My high school counselor [made me want to become a counselor],” Hunter said. “When I was in high school, I had this amazing counselor, Ms. Carpenter, who was just an all-around wonderful person… [she] was always there for me when I was going through some stuff, preparing for college, all those pieces. I always felt like I wanted to do something in psychology, something where I was helping people, because it’s just something I’ve always done.”
Logan described her high school counselor rather differently.
“My high school counselor was not very helpful to me, and I just felt like [counseling] is something I need to do, because I don’t want any kid to not get the help that they needed during the especially stressful time of being a high school junior or senior,“ Logan said.
Despite the varying circumstances that led Hunter and Logan to become school counselors, students are grateful for the help they have provided.
“I am so grateful that Northwood has such wonderful counselors on call any time I need them,” Pollard said. “After all they’ve done for me and others, I really can’t thank them enough.”
– By Sawyer Davis