A day in the life of a house counselor

Fixing schedules, educating students, writing countless letters of recommendations or just working as a friend to talk to are all just a few ways our Samo guidance counselors countlessly serve to assist us throughout our highschool careers. Our counselors serve as a huge resource to us. They help to shape our future, molding it into one best suited for each individual. Since our counselors single-handedly impact hundreds of students’ futures, wouldn't it make sense to take a peek into what their daily lives consist of? S House Counselor, Amy Golden, starts off her morning with a stressless and fortuate four mile commute to Samo and a cup of coffee, a necessity to help her get through the day. On certain unfortunate days, she spends the whole day in meetings. If she has these back-to-back meetings throughout the day, Golden will try to schedule something light-hearted in the rare down time she has. For example, if she finds out that one of her students did well on a test they’ve been stressing over, she’ll try to pull them in to congratulate them in person, acting as a highlight to a rough day.  “There are some days that I don’t have any down time, whatsoever. For the most part I try to give myself a half hour between each meeting to answer some emails, call in students or grab a quick bite. So far, I have found that I have not been as successful with this as much as I’d like to be. So I’ve decided that I’m going to change things up a bit next year, scheduling more night time meetings towards the end of the day. This way, it doesn’t interfere with the school day because I don’t feel like I have been as good dealing with students who just need to come in and talk,” Golden said.  Our counselors currently have their hands full, consumed in the busy season of scheduling. Starting from Jan. 24 through Mar. 23, Golden is interviewing her 150 sophomores, but since only 95 parents have signed up for a meeting, she has scheduled to meet with some students individually. In these meetings Golden is not only creating the perfect schedule for her students based on their future college/career plans, but she also gets a chance to get to know them better.  “We, individually, go over their plans for next year as well as talking about SAT/ACT, Naviance and requirements for college. In between you sometimes meet with kids who either have some problems with their class or they just want to check in, sign forms, things of that nature. So literally all day long it's like go, go, go. And it’s great because all of sudden you look up at the clock and it’s 3:30 p.m., and it’s almost time to go,” Golden said.  Starting off as a middle school counselor back in 1999, Golden has continued to show nothing but dedication for her position, working as the S House advisor for grades 10 and 12. Although Golden has been working in education for over 18 years, she never planned on getting into this when she was in high school. When Golden was a senior in high school her first choice for college was James Madison University. But, unfortunately her guidance counselor at the time didn’t help her enough with the application, so she ended up getting waitlisted. But since Golden’s father was also a guidance counselor, he understood her disappointment and struggle and called the university almost everyday, trying to get his daughter in.  “I eventually got in, and I remember thinking at that very moment: I would love to do that for someone else,” Golden said.  Besides growing up in a household of educational careers, she still wanted to explore other possibilities before she was convinced that counseling was, indeed, the best opportunity for her. “I went to college for something completely different: health administration. My mom was a teacher and my dad was a guidance counselor, so I didn’t want anything to do with education growing up,” Golden said.  After working in the health industry for a little while, she was finally set that she would really enjoy the life of a school counselor. So Golden went back to school and proudly earned her counseling credentials. Now she still receives gratitude from her previous students, even from her first counseling job as a middle school counselor back in 1999.   “Sometimes you even see this years down the road. The students that I used to counsel when I first moved to California, in 2001, have just turned 33. They’re like real adults now. And they still reach out to me to say thank you,” Golden said.  But what Golden likes most about this job is that no day looks the same. As a counselor, she explained how there’s three primary focuses throughout the day. The first focus is to work with students’ academics, while also helping with study skills and organization. They ensure that every student is on track for both graduation and college, by checking on their academic performances and their attendance. Furthermore a counselor will, not only, intervene when a student isn’t meeting their academic requirements, but will also engage when disciplinary problems arise.  If a student is struggling at home or has issues with their friends, Golden explained how counselors also collaborate with them in that regard, somewhat like a therapist. By trying to resolve their situations, counselors are also involved in more personal and social issues in their daily life. Counselor Al Trundle, H House, shared his thoughts on the responsibilities of being an advisor nowadays, giving us another perspective on what this job encompasses.  “Since I’ve been doing this awhile, I think that this job has evolved over time. But when I first came here, a lot of it was figuring out schedules and communicating with parents. Now with [the influence of] social media, colleges becoming very difficult to get into and friendships becoming everything and suddenly changing like nobody’s business, it’s almost become like a different job. In general, it’s to the point where you have to be there for social, emotional, scholastic and interpersonal problems. There’s all these different dynamics, and it sometimes helps the students if the person they’re talking to isn’t their parent. Many students don’t like sharing with their parents, since they don’t want them to be judging them on what’s going on. Essentially, being a counselor is being someone who’s not going to judge, where you can come in and say ‘blah’, and be accepted regardless,” Trundle said.  A final focus throughout the day is handling individuals’ college and career decisions. Golden contributes to ensure that her students are completing the right activities in preparation for their future goals. In the end, our counselors help students in all aspects, whether it’s supporting in academic achievement, social/personal development or just cultivating today's students to become the productive, successful leaders of tomorrow.  “In general, it’s a lot of more an open door policy. You’ll never know what’s going to walk through the door on any given day,” Golden said.  Golden essentially chose to work as a counselor because of her passion for helping people and knowing that she made a difference to someone. She justified how you don’t always see the pay off right away, but in the end you’ll eventually hear the positive impact: “Thank you so much, because of you I made it through.” “To me, some days I can’t believe I get paid to do this because there’s no amount of money that you can have that’ll make you feel this good. I get to hang out and talk with kids, help in anyway I can with their future plans and that’s just me, getting through the day,” Golden said.