"Rewards and Challenges"

School counselors careers can be rewarding. Guidance counselors can have a powerful impact that lasts a lifetime. They help student's with learning issues, truancy, various illnesses and very low self- esteem. For many students counselors are advocates for their rights and understand how systems work and how to cultivate friends at outside community agencies that can really help students and families. I can personally recall my school counselor, who I must admit my biology teacher served in all of those capacities at Fulton High School. She was one person that I could share anything with and not worry how I would be judge. Twenty- three years later who would have known she would still be a counselor to me. So you see, guidance counselors have a major role that can maximize a new sense of possibilities that can last forever.

However, school counselors have their challenges as well. Many challenges a school counselor may encounter is lack of parental involvement, overload of students they are servicing and lack of administration support. When parents are not involved with their child's educational career other problems may arise that a counselor will need to be aware of such as, academic failure, attendance problems and behavioral issues. Some of these problems are because the overload of students a counselor might have. At my school, we are fortunate enough to have three counselors, whereas, some schools only have one. This is when students fall off the train, headed for disaster. Administration can support counselors more by attending various meetings to address areas of concerns, as well as highlights of the positives that are occurring in the school building. These are some challenges a counselor may experience.