MSCC Appreciates High School Counselors

Can you imagine working at a job where one minute you are writing a scholarship recommendation letter and the next minute you are serving as a crisis intervention specialist? Such is the life of a school counselor. Last week, Mid-South Community College had the privilege of welcoming guidance professionals to campus for our annual Counselor Appreciation Day. While providing a free lunch and some door prizes doesn’t even begin to express our gratitude, it at least gives us an opportunity to demonstrate in some small way how much we appreciate counselors for the daily contributions they make to our community and region.

I moved to West Memphis in 1990 as a high school principal, and it didn’t take me long to recognize how important counselors are to the educational process. While their job descriptions are varied and their responsibilities are many, they all have a common mission: to play an important (and sometimes irreplaceable) role in shaping the lives and the futures of our young people. Their job is often a juggling act of mammoth proportions as they prioritize, multitask, and discern while serving as many as 300 students – and that’s almost the best-case scenario in terms of numbers. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250-to-1, but the national average is closer to 470-1, based on figures from the 2010-11 school year. We’re doing better than that in Arkansas at 316-1, but that still means a ton of work for someone who deals with everything from bullying and abuse to clerical requirements.

Counselors aren’t paid enough money to put themselves in the situations they face on a daily basis, but they are rewarded with the opportunity to go to bed every night knowing that they have helped somebody have a better existence. That’s a valuable feeling. I’m sure most counselors can’t go to the grocery store, discount store, gas station, or clothing store without running into somebody whose life they have changed. On numerous occasions, I have seen students approach counselors, hug them, and tell them they love them and how much they appreciate their efforts. And that’s the reason counselors do what they do.

Many of us at the College relate well to the plight of counselors because we have faced similar challenges while striving to help students realize their God-given potential. Social issues, while not much different from the past, are magnified and dramatically affected by today’s high-speed information technology. The career guidance aspect of the job has changed tremendously in the last 10 years as we have seen a transition where students graduating from high school are no longer assured of job and/or a decent wage. So our counselors are doing their best to figure out how to help young people move to the next level and get them appropriately placed so they can help them get a job. Everybody, regardless of their life circumstances, deep down inside wants to know that somebody values them. They want to know that they have a reason for existing; they want to know that their talents are appreciated by people. In our culture, the best way to do that is to get a job and get paid for doing something.

Because of the global economy and a number of other circumstances, counselors are in a tougher situation because most schools can’t help students develop the skill sets they need during that prescribed high school experience. That’s where MSCC, and other institutions like ours, can help. So while counselors’ jobs are far more complicated today than even a few short years ago, we’re doing all we can to make them a little easier. And that’s even better than a free lunch and a door prize.

- See more at: http://www.midsouthcc.edu/blog/mscc-appreciates-high-school-counselors/#sthash.hwifg0iN.dpuf