House Creek Elementary school counselor wins state award for excellence

By WENDY SLEDD

Special to the Leader-Press

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain." 

This is the favorite quote of Copperas Cove's House Creek Elementary School Counselor Amy Simpson who will receive the CREST-- Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas--Award for counseling excellence at the Texas School Counselor Association conference in February. Simpson is honored for implementing a model program for Texas schools.

“There are storms in every life, without fail, no matter how hard we try to shelter ourselves or others. I have been hopeful that the experiences and storms I have gone through could be useful for others—that somehow, my storm could be someone else's rainbow,” Simpson said. “Since beginning work in education, my goal has been to be a change agent. By pursuing a degree in school counseling, I found a way to advocate for changes that are necessary to help students through their storms. Teaching them how to ‘dance’--whether that is through relationship building, self-confidence, exploring thoughts and feelings and how to manage them, or helping them recognize their talents and worth--I really just want to help their worlds be a little bit more beautiful. The rain comes, the storms pass, and the sun always comes out again.”

CREST is a continuous improvement document that gives a school counseling program an opportunity to demonstrate effective communication and a commitment to obtaining results. CREST helps counselors to evaluate their counseling programs, promote their programs to the stakeholders in their districts, demonstrate the effectiveness of their guidance and counseling programs through empirical means, and to implement the Texas and National models for school counseling programs.

CREST looks at the counseling program in five categories.

• Introduction to the School and the Role of the Professional School Counselor
• Program Implementation Cycle
• Foundational Components
• Four Service Delivery Components
• Program Curriculum

The counseling team prepares a digital submission that highlights these areas and communicates what the counseling program is doing to help students succeed. These are sent to reviewers throughout the state of Texas to be judged according to pre-set standards of excellence.

“School counselors consistently provide care and support for students and staff alike. I can't promise to fix students’ problems, but I can promise them they won't have to face them alone.  Part of being a school counselor is to help students help themselves,” Simpson said. “We open the door to exploration of skills and tools that students already have, but maybe don't know how to use. School counselors are not the answer—the students developing their skills are the answer, and we just get to help them achieve that. By providing a comfortable, collaborative, calm, inviting environment, school counselors help students recognize and build on the strengths they already have. School counselors are whole child focused and work to find ways to support and protect each individual.”