Lake Waccamaw, NC – Teresa Hunt sat on the bench outside of the Thomas Academy high school building listening carefully to the student sitting at the other end. At the same time, Sherry Kennedy sat in the high school’s office helping one of the seniors make an update to her FAFSA online.
While their formal titles are Mental Health Counselor and Instructional Coordinator respectively, these two women work together to perform an enhanced version of a school guidance counselor.
“Students achieve school success and plan for careers with their school counselor,” said Thomas Academy Principal Dr. Cathy Gantz. “At Thomas Academy we put such an emphasis on an individualized educational experience we realized that our school counselor program needed to look a bit different. We kept the focus on academics and the educational planning and added the emotional support component that was missing in the traditional model.”
The new model works well for the team, according to Kennedy.
“I am so grateful to be on the team with Teresa,” Kennedy said. “We are able to lean into our strengths to provide the best school experience for the students.
“Academically there is so much to keep student transcripts clean and accurate,” she continued. “I spend a lot of time reaching out to make sure students are getting the credits they deserve, especially when they transfer in from other schools.”
While Kennedy focuses on that technical side, Hunt is working with the emotional needs that come into play.
“I’m here to help calm the kids down to get them back in the classroom ready to learn,” Hunt said. “I don’t get into the disciplinary things like our behavioral specialist do. I’m here to help address the anxiety, grief, and other emotions built up from home or school or even job stresses for the students. I want to understand their academic and life goals to then hand off to Sherry to do the academic side.”
Kennedy adds, “We want to make sure to look at what they need to graduate and keep those items in front of them as they create their academic schedules each semester. We just started our second semester and introduced a new system to request class changes. We had eight requests for changes, all of which were well thought out and matched with their academic goals so we were able to accommodate the requests. More importantly, all of those students were able to advocate for themselves to achieve their desired goal through the system before them.”
Both women recognize that they cannot do their jobs well without being present with the students on a regular basis.
“We have to build real relationships so that they trust us,” Hunt said. “We can only have the right information to help motivate them to achieve the goals they set for themselves if they are comfortable with us.
“By splitting the job of a traditional school guidance counselor, we are able to spend more time one-on-one with the students to address their different needs,” she added. “Some students need more support on the emotional side in order to be able to even begin to address the academic side. Other students are good on the emotional side but need intensive assistance on the academic front in order to achieve their goals. Sherry and I are able to work together to provide that support alongside the teachers, behavioral specialists and administrators.”
Another way the Thomas Academy students are addressing their emotional intelligence is through a special class that takes place every Wednesday morning in small groups.
“Every Wednesday morning we have Social Emotional Learning sessions,” Hunt said. “This week we did sessions answering the question ‘who inspires you?’ Teachers have reported they had some meaningful conversations on the topic and the students opened up. While the questions are important, the goal is for the students to get comfortable enough to start to talk openly. It helps in learning what the expectations are.
“We have to get on their level and speak in their terms to motivate them,” she said. “We help them find their interests so that the light bulb goes off and they can connect the work in their classroom to getting where they want to be.”
About Thomas Academy
Thomas Academy is a North Carolina Public Charter School that educates middle and high school students. Located on the campus of Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina in Lake Waccamaw, the academy provides a tailored academic experience to students who are oftentimes in need of a more specialized, integrated curriculum. Thomas Academy was founded on personalization in education, unique offerings and educating through purposeful design. Enrollment is open to any student in grades six through 12.
