A Walk Of Life Rose Lama 1
s a teenager, Mr. Romo Gonzalez envisioned himself as a graphic designer. He made numerous designs. He put pencils and pens behind his ears to look professional. He continued to pursue his dream until his sophomore year of college, when he realized “It wasn’t for me...this is not something I want[ed] to become” (Romo).
Consequently, Mr. Romo changed his major to social work. In the middle of his undergraduate degree he interned as a high school counselor, loving the position and later moving on to San Jose State for a Master’s in Counseling. Counselors are really important because they help students realize a better future. Whether it’s changing schedules, talking to parents, or preparing for graduation, a high school counselor takes care of students.
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day of Mr. Romo’s work would, for many people, be undoubtedly stressing. His day
starts early with a sip of coffee and a long drive in a heavy traffic from San Jose to Mountain View. As a counselor, he not only advises students, he also teaches some elective classes. For first, fifth and sixth periods, he supervises a study skills class, where students get help with their most challenging subjects. He monitors the class together with other teachers who come to help students in their free periods. The classes are like a community where the students are all like-minded. Whether it is with a group or with individuals, everyone gets equal opportunity to study and work with the teachers. When a student needs help in a subject which both Mr. Romo and the teachers are unfamiliar with, Mr. Romo reads informational articles with the student, and they try help each other understand. Still, he understands that while making students read on their own might make them independent, working with a partner helps them think more in depth. For Mr. Romo, learning together is more effective than learning alone. Clearly, Mr. Romo empathizes with his students. In The Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink says, “Empathy allows us to see the other side of the argument, comfort someone in distress, and bite our lip instead of muttering some-
thing snide. Empathy builds self-awareness, bonds parents to child, allows us to work together, and provides the scaffolding for our morality” (256). It not only creates bond with the parents but with teachers as well. Mr. Romo uses empathy with humor to lighten the distress among the students. When students are stressed, tired or sleepy, Mr. Romo hands snacks and water for students to be healthy and on top of their tasks. For Mr. Romo, helping the students doesn’t mean simply giving advice, but helping them understand with healthy mind. “Mr. Romo is life,” writes Jose Arreola, a supervised study student, in big print on the whiteboard. Other students acknowledge Jose’s frequently written message. The students and the year might change but the message on the whiteboard stays forever the same.
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r. Romo has influenced many students. Peter Steiner, a senior student who has been taking supervised study for two years with Mr. Romo, claims he only trusts Mr. Romo and an art teacher in the school, Ms. Nock. Both Mr. Romo and Ms. Nock has been protective shield for Peter, helping him take each steps to his future carefully. Mr. Romo had been helping Peter
work on essays for his UC applications. Being in class with Mr. Romo not only helps Peter in his studies, it also helps him mentally. Peter expresses his change in attitude about school with a single word: “Butterfly”. He explains, “There are a lot of different kids in the class so it’s good... cultural exposure. When you take AP classes, you are not just with, like, smart kids, it’s good for character development.” Peter once had a bad experience with his counselor where he had to make a quick and rough decision. Later when the school guidance didn’t work out well for him, he changed his counselor. Now when Peter thinks about his past experience, he wishes he had chosen Mr. Romo as his counselor. Peter is confident that Mr. Romo does an “excellent job” on counseling. “I don’t think experience should help [in counseling] but in [his old counselor’s] case it didn’t; maybe having been a counselor for so long, they just kinda got caught in a glue,” believes Peter. He thinks that because counselors have been giving same advice to most of the students, they think every other student can do the same.
Peter argues that Mr. Romo is different and more responsible because he is new and excited to do his work: “A new counselor might be excited for the job and ready to cus-
tomize for each students they have. Like this person needs this kind of thing. I don’t know, probably have something with...” (Steiner). But in the end Peter thinks that Mr. Romo is willing and good at his job because he is new and excited.
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inda Schortz, a counselor of Mountain View, thinks that Peter is wrong about how he thinks Mr. Romo will get careless with his job as time passes on because she says Mr. Romo wouldn’t have taken the job if he didn’t know the responsibilities. Mr. Romo knew beforehand what his work was going to be like, and she is thankful that he took that step to directly connect with the students. Ms. Shortz has been counseling at Mountain View High School for about fifteen years, and she claims that “Mr. Romo is one of the most organized people in this whole
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department...and he really cares to do a good job.” She, like Peter, is confident that Mr. Romo is a hard worker and has the ability to handle multiple situations. Sure, a counselor does a lot of troubleshooting things; the biggest job for counseling comes “right at the start of the school year, especially, because they have to “work a lot with seniors on their college applications materials” (Schortz). Not only that, the counselors meet “with each grade level, and every student is offered one-on-one appointment.” Even after the first busy weeks of counseling, the rest of the year is filled with “a lot of troubleshooting.” It’s not always help and encouragement students need from counselors; it’s trust a counselor builds with them, and creating that trust can be really hard.
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veryone goes through stress, including counselors. A counselor’s job is not only to show the students the right path to their future but it is also to keep
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them organized. It can be really hard for counselors carrying the stress from home, students, parents and their work. Mr. Romo has been through it all, and he has taught himself on reducing stress by not overworking his physical body. He said teaching students how not to get stressed and to give themselves free time has made himself be less stressed. “I definitely have learned to let go of stuff and to relax. I am not (one of ) those crazy people that say that the gym is their stress reliever. I think the gym is torture. I like to color, doodle, sketch or even just watch TV.” Mr. Romo understands that everyone is different and needs different motivations. Additionally, when it comes to talking to a parent, communication can be really difficult. You have to handle the balance of not intruding too much into the parent-child relationship while still supporting the student. There have been times in Mr. Romo’s counseling where he faced such situations. He said that when “it is a huge, personal problem the student is facing, and they haven’t spoken to their parents about, it does put you in the middle.” Talking to parent would be easier if the student’s parent knew it beforehand: “On one hand, you want to respect the student’s privacy, but, on the other hand, the student wants you to talk to parents on their
behalf.” There are times when counseling turns into a disaster. Mr. Romo has already been through several occasions where he found himself in situations where he had to make quick decisions. According to Mr. Romo, counselors help with “class stuff, scheduling, time management,” but sometimes “there is an emergency in here, where a student is in tears because of a family emergency, personal emergency...We help manage that, and we also work with teachers and students and their parents to actually help them to succeed. So it’s not just working with the students, it’s working with a whole crew of people.” Sometimes he feels insecure when there is a quarrel or a fight in the school. After the incident, he can’t stop thinking about what steps he could have taken to prevent it from happening and what kind of consequences would be most relevant to the students involved.
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any people like Lynn O’Shaughnessy, author on the article, “What’s Wrong With High School Counselors,” think that routine high school counselors lack education and should not be given the responsibility of trust. In reality, a trained counselor demands a strong education. Not only do they have to learn about colleges and guidance, they have to mentally prepare themselves
counselor, she was shocked. She the depth of his heart. for confronting tough situathought he was going to do tions nobody wants to be in. something related to art. One Carina Romo Anguiao, Mr. “I want Mr. thing Carina is sure about Mr. Romo’s younger sister, respondRomo to be my Romo is that he “is an amazed to Lynn O’Shaughnessy counselor.”(Stiner) ing role model”. He was the by saying, “I disagree because one who helped her with her I think counselors do have college applications. They talk enough education. They attend “Yes it[counceling] can get daily. Sometimes they have and graduate from college just tough, it can get difficult, it long conversations regardas any working professional can even get uncomfortable but ing advice on important has to do.” Carina knows more that’s my job here.” (Mr. Romo) life decisions or daily drama about Mr. Romo than any in their lives, but other times other person. They spent their it is a quick phone call where first twenty-six years together, “I don’t think I regret being a counselor, I love it, I think we just check-in. They are from the day she was born to it’s fun.”(Mr. Romo) really close, always helping the day she got married. For one another; both of them are Carina, Mr. Romo is not just teachers, differing only by the a brother but a close friend. age group of their students. She remembers Mr. Romo as “a “When people walk through Mr. Romo wants to be a very good student. He always the door you never know quite positive influence to students received good grades and would what’s gonna happen”.(Scortz) and to guide them towards challenge himself by taking the their future. He wants to most difficult classes offered. He would take his projects seriously continue helping the students and would persist until they “This is a job where there is from were complete.” Not only was a million things to try and he talented in studies, he did a learn and so it just doesn’t happen.”(Mr. Romo) lot of arts, and humor is part “Mr. Romo is life.”(Arreola) of his life. Carina remembers “In high school... I would have him help me draw things Be open-minded and don’t close for projects because your eyes and follow one path for I thought he was your whole life. There are a lot of very talented. At things to see.”(Mr. Romo) first, I thought he traced them, but he didn’t” (Anguiao). When “There are a lot of kids that do need help and is really good at getting them that help she heard Mr. and bringing in teachers or sending us to Romo was classes. It’s really truly good.”(Stiner) going to be a
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Works Cited
Anguiao, Carina Romo. Personal Interview. 4 Oct. 2015. Gonzalez, Romo. Personal Interview. 8 Sep. 2015. O’Shaugnessy, Lynn. “Whats Wrong With High School Counselors”. The College Solution. Lynn O’Shaughnessy, 18 July 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2015. Pink, David H. A Whole New Mind. N.p.: Penguin, 2006. Print. Schortz, Lydia. Personal interview. 29 Sep. 2015. Steiner, Peter. Personal Interview. 27 Sep. 2015.
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