What do you like to do in your free time?

I’m a cheer and dance mom, so that’s all the free time I have. I was actually at a game until nine o’clock last night.

What is your favorite part of being a counselor?

My favorite part, honestly, is helping students. I like to break the code to figure out what they’re missing and that accomplishment of them getting to graduate. That’s my favorite part.

In what ways do you think counselors help students most?

By being empathetic. Of course, having guidelines because we have to stick by those. But trying to help my students in any way possible, really just being accessible as much as possible. And if I can help, I want to be able to help.

How do you feel about the changes to course selection this year, do you think it will be easier or harder for students to use?

I think that it can be easier. The more I used it, the more I ended up liking it, having a page for each subject. But I think it’s challenging because it is new. We’re not experts and we’re coming to help you. It makes it a little more difficult, so I’m ready for it to go to Skyward.

Is there any advice you can give to students about course selection?

You should know your strengths. You should know your weaknesses. You should have balance. If you’re going to be in other activities, which I encourage all the students to have a balance. Then balance your workload as well. Taking all AP classes and trying to participate in something else is very difficult. It’s a lot and you have to be careful. It’s not just that you’re not ‘smart enough,’ but the mental health and you stand up all night every night because you have AP classes and you have Dual Credit and you have OnRamps. You have all of this going on at one time and you have to be careful with your mental health.

Lastly, is there any advice you could give to students about managing their mental health?

Let me tell you the truth, I’m probably the worst person to talk to because I want to say so bad, have fun. Like this is it, once you’re out of high school, college can be fun, but you will never get these years back. So, I advocate for my students to work hard, especially for those first three years, don’t try to take all the stuff at the end. Try to get all the things that you can done, because I want my students to enjoy their senior year. Not to blow it off, but enjoy it. Enjoy all the activities and being a part of prom and all that. I don’t want it to be, ‘I can’t participate in my senior sunrise because I’m overwhelmed,’ so I just say, enjoy it.