What do you like to do when you’re outside of school? Favorite hobbies?
I enjoy kickboxing. I also like watching netflix and cuddling with my cat. Sometimes I’m a creative person. I like doing art projects. I know how to make scarfs. I’m not a good painter but I like painting. I like spending time with my friends. Haven’t done it in a month but enjoy kickboxing. I also like watching Netflix. I like doing art projects like scarfs and I like painting and hanging out with friends.
What type of music genre do you like to listen to?
I like most genres. I’m more about the song rather than the genre, so for example, I’ll like country songs that I like. There will be songs I like with any language, whether I understand the language or not. I would also say alternative rock, basically people who I listened to & followed growing up; “My Chemical Romance”, “Panic at the disco” and other bands like that. I call myself a former emo kid, an OG
Do you have any secret talents or skills?
I’m really good at naming a song during the first few beats of the song and I can also pick up music very quickly. Another skill I have that’s not super common but I’m at an intermediate level of is knowing how to read and write in braille. Part of that because my mom is blind and she was learning it when I was a kid, and I learned with her.
What led you to this job?
I originally was majoring in Psychology in Criminal Justice. I thought I was going to be working in juvenile justice either as a counselor or a patrol officer. But after I did an internship at a jail I realized you needed to have tough skin to be able to do this kind of work.
I like helping people. I thought about becoming a mental help professional so I started MFT( Marriage, Family, Therapy). I started training for that then about a third of the way through I realized it was really heavy because when you’re a therapist you listen to people’s problems the whole day and in the back of my mind some of my favorite things about working with students. Because I also had side jobs working at high schools and elementary school I really liked helping students navigate school. I had some cousins that I helped with their college applications, so I thought school counseling is the best of both worlds. You get a little of mental health and you get a little bit of the college stuff so that’s what led to school counseling.
What motivates you to work hard?
I try to have high expectations for myself and there’s this inside joke in my family of “Box A, B and C. Box A was the easy stuff “box B” was the medium stuff and “box C” was the difficult stuff, and my teacher would tell my mom that I always did the A and B work she never does the C work I know she can do the C work so that kinda as been the inside joke with my family is like is this a C work type of job or this the B work type of B job I think because at a young age i didn’t challenge myself and the circumstances in my life I didn’t want to challenge myself so i want to be a better human being and a better person so that motivates me to work hard. I always think to myself and if im signing up for a task is this a box level or c box label.
What do you like/love about your job?
I love the interactions and the connections with my students. I love my students at lunch or around school time and they’ll just hang out in my office and talk about their life, college, or whatever is on their mind. Just having those interactions is fun and I jokingly say that they keep me young. I’ve been working here for six years but I’ve seen 5 of my students graduate when you see them across that stage and especially if it’s a student that you know that had struggles it’s heartwarming you’re seeing them grow up.
What do you least like about your job?
There are certain structures in the education system that make it difficult for students to navigate school. I think traditional school is not necessarily to support everyone. There are students who struggle a lot and need extra support, but can’t get that in a big high school like ours.
