Book Review: I Wish for Change: Unleashing the Power of Kids to Make a Difference

Book Review: I Wish for Change: Unleashing the Power of Kids to Make a Difference

I cannot seem to remember the last time that I actually wrote a book review. Was it middle school? Elementary school? However long ago that it was, here I am again: Deciding to dust-off my book review skills for the first time since kids still rocked snap bracelets; fanny packs (back in fashion now, I may add) and ate Dunkaroos after school. I really did not set out to write a book review this month, to be honest, but by…

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My Mission & Vision Statements

My Mission & Vision Statements

Recently, I took some time to craft a Mission Statement and Vision Statement for my career as a school counselor (my Mission Statement), and, more holistically, for all aspects of my life (in the form of a Vision Statement). You can see them below. It is my hope that you, too, may also be inspired and emboldened to create your own statements, that will serve to encourage and motivate you in areas both inside and outside of your career. Mission…

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How to Run 1,000 Miles in a Year (and Other Reflections for Planning and Goal-Setting in the New Year)

How to Run 1,000 Miles in a Year (and Other Reflections for Planning and Goal-Setting in the New Year)

I was a cross country runner throughout high school, but, this year, I did something I had never done previously in my running life: I ran 1,000 miles in a calendar year (2020). Here are my top twelve tips for distance running, along with some remarks on goal-setting and reflections on what I learned during the past twelve months of running. (Here is 2021’s follow-up article) 1. Write down your weekly mileage: I used a mini 12-month calendar bought from…

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Building a Brand: A Blue-Collar Counselor’s Journey From the Beginning

Building a Brand: A Blue-Collar Counselor’s Journey From the Beginning

In this first of a two-part series on branding, I take a look at the Blue-Collar Counselor moniker, while also taking a trip down memory lane. The Blue-Collar Counselor Goes to School: It seems that I have always been interested in people and places. Maybe it goes back to elementary school, where, every year, I expeditiously leafed through my Social Studies books looking for all the colorful graphs, charts, maps, and pictures to study that could be contained within the…

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An Unsung Bastion of American Educational Democracy: Why More Students Should Consider Community Colleges

An Unsung Bastion of American Educational Democracy: Why More Students Should Consider Community Colleges

One of America’s best-kept secrets might not be so much a secret as much as an often-overlooked, unsung hero in the landscape of higher education. That secret? The community college. Perhaps part of what makes the American college system the envy of the world is the fact that there is such a wide breadth of options—and levels of accessibility—for anyone who wants access to a college experience and education. Community colleges; public state universities; private colleges; Liberal Arts schools; colleges…

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Supporting 1st Generation Future College Students: How School Counselors and Educators Can Help Students Bridge the Gap Between High School and College

Supporting 1st Generation Future College Students: How School Counselors and Educators Can Help Students Bridge the Gap Between High School and College

I guess that I never really thought of myself as a first-generation student throughout most of college. I went to a smaller, not highly-competitive high school where a good number of students went on to college (whether many finished or not is another story) and a smaller, but certainly not statistically insignificant, number of students did not go to college. Most people around me did not seem to obsess over college brands, rankings, or prestige (and most of what I…

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Supporting Underrepresented Students in Advanced Courses: How Counselors Can Help Level the Playing Field for Our Students

Supporting Underrepresented Students in Advanced Courses: How Counselors Can Help Level the Playing Field for Our Students

The focus of this discussion is working with underrepresented students of Color—particularly African-American and Latinx high school students (but the following points can also apply to all students), and how counselors can help these students gain greater access to—and experience yearly success in—Accelerated and Advanced Placement courses. (For the sake of uniformity in our discussion: Honors or Accelerated Courses will be categorized as one subset, and Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Dual Enrollment options will occupy the other subset. Together,…

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