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eanna (Custer) Breen graduated from Bishop Verot in 1994. While completing her master and specialist degree in School Counseling from the University of Florida in 2001, she was offered an internship with the Bishop Verot Guidance Department. After her 1st semester, she was hired on full-time under the direction of Mr. Bill Stejskal. Although she spent a few years in the Admissions Director role, developing and implementing a solid plan to increase enrollment, helping current students find success is her passion. In addition to being a certified School Counselor, in 2018 Deanna earned a certificate from the American School Counselor Association and is now considered an Anxiety and Stress Management Specialist. In 2020 she also earned a certificate as a Grief and Loss Specialist as well as a Trauma and Crisis Management Specialist. Q: What do you see as your main role as a School Counselor? A: As a School Counselor, I consider my three main job responsibilities are to guide students academically, emotionally, and to prepare them for college/ career. Although I take pride in the work we do as counselors in regards to academic and college counseling, it is the social/emotional counseling and programs I am most passionate about and proud of. This includes individual counseling sessions with students as well as hosting programs to address mental wellness and coping strategies. As an example, I have developed a program where we invite local Licensed Mental Health Counselors from the surrounding Lee County area to do workshops with our students on topics including
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stress management, how a healthy diet can help academic performance, study skills, managing anxiety, and mindfulness. I developed this program because I saw a steady increase in the number of students struggling with mental wellness, which inevitably impacts their performance in the classroom if not addressed.
Q: How do you help current students plan for their future success? A: I frequently go into classes to talk about topics such as the importance of maintaining a good GPA, how to make the most of high school, researching colleges, etc. I walk our sophomore class each year through a series of personality and career interest assessments to help them hone in on an area they may want to study more after high school. Q: Teen anxiety has steadily increased in recent years, even more dramatically this year. How do you help students cope? A: During COVID, I continue to provide in-person counseling to students as well as counseling sessions via Zoom for distance learning students. While we were shut down last school year, I provided additional opportunities for students to talk about mental wellness, such as “Wellness Wednesday”, a zoom session where students could get together and talk about what was helping them through the tough time of being socially isolated and having to adjust to distance learning. I also run small groups to target students who
WINTER 2020-21