Feb 07, 2020

School Counseling Week highlights role of counselors in education

Posted Feb 07, 2020 5:40 PM

by Sarah Thomack

St. Joseph Post

A school counselor's day can include anything from addressing a crisis to discussing a student's career goals.

St. Joseph School District Coordinator of School Counseling Kim Hill says school counselors may have a plan for their work day, but there is no "typical" day for them.

"The academic piece, the kinds of things they might do would be lessons on study skills, goal setting, job prep and post secondary planning," Hill says. "There might be a crisis that presents itself or a student in crisis or a more pressing need, so a lot of times the typical day requires some amount of triage and prioritization to determine what you’re going to do that day."

Hill says National School Counseling Week highlights the valuable role of a school counselor.

"All of our school counselors are really very caring people, that’s why they tend to end up in this profession, I always kind of say it’s a calling because a good school counselor really does feel kind of called to this - it’s like a 56-hour Master's degree - so people don’t do it because it’s the easy way, they do it because they want to help students."

There are 32 school counselors within the St. Joseph School District from elementary through high school.