"It’s all about the students."
Becoming a counselor at Churchill High School is the best professional decision Amanda Schmitt has ever made. But it’s not just been good for her; it’s also been good for her students.
Schmitt has been part of the Churchill team in one way or another for 20 years now. She started as an English teacher but knew she had a passion for counseling. So, she went back to school, got her master’s degree and when an opening on the counseling team happened, she jumped at the opportunity.
“As a teacher, you may have 30 students in front of you, but as a counselor, we get the chance to work with small groups or one-on-one. We get them away from their distractions. They feel safe to share and dig into what their issues might be. My favorite part of this job is one-on-one time with kids. Hands down, it’s the best.”
That one-on-one time doesn’t happen by accident. The counseling team at Churchill works hard to ensure they spend as much time as possible in front of their students. They do guidance lessons, academic presentations, coffee with the counselors, and minute meetings, where they will sit at a table in a hallway so they are accessible to students who are always on the go.
That effort earned the Churchill counseling team a recent CREST award from the Texas School Counselor Association. CREST stands for Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas. It shows our counselors have a plan and work with their community to provide the best outcomes for their students.
“You can’t win a CREST award if you aren’t accessing your community -- bringing them on board, asking them what they need and finding out how we can respond. Our advisory board is made up of students, parents and teachers. It takes all of us working together to help our kids get the best outcomes. Counselors save lives. I see it all the time in my job, and that’s the result of our partnering with our staff, students and parents. It’s a good time to be a passionate professional school counselor in our District.”
Feb. 5-9 is National School Counseling Week. Please join us in celebrating all our counselors do for our students and families.
If you want to let an NEISD counselor know how much he or she means to you, we’ve made it easy to send a Staff Shout Out!
