High School Counselor Analysis

Growing up in a Latino immigrant family, I was always expected to go to college. However, neither of my parents had graduated high school, so they could only offer me moral support and words of encouragement. My parents engrained in me a strong work ethic, and it was the driving force of my success in school, but I needed guidance. I would see my father come home exhausted after working two jobs, and I wanted something better to help my family financially and also so that my parents sacrifices would not be in vain — they left everything they knew and loved in Mexico to provide a brighter future for their children. Still, college was an obscure goal and I did not know how I was going to attain it, but in my second year of high school I was fortunate …show more content…
I think that having worked with a counselor who was not satisfying my needs as a student and working with one who cared about the growth and betterment of the student gives me insight on how to effectively serve students. College was a new frontier for me, no one in my family had ever accomplished this feat, and because I was able to reach this goal through the beneficial experiences that I had with my counselor I am passionate of doing the same for others who are in a similar position that I was in, dealing with financial barriers, uncertainty about college, and even struggling with feeling incompetent. The AVID program that I was a part of was great, but only students within the program had access to the counselor that really helped me; the college preparation program was exclusive to students who were college bound, that is, students who were doing well in their classes. However, I think that all students can benefit from a great counselor, and not only students who are on track to reaching a college education. Had I not been part of the AVID program I would have missed out on the great opportunity of working with a great counselor and I think my trajectory would have been very different. All students can benefit from having a supportive counselor who is invested in making an impact in the students’ lives; especially, students who are struggling the most because it is likely that they have never had the necessary support or guidance that is needed to succeed when one is an underserved student and does not have a college precedent to follow. Through my first hand experiences, I think that I can relate to the student populations that I would be serving because I identify with them and would be able to empathize with them. I am determined to give back to my community, harness the corrective experiences I had with my counselor and pay