Photo courtesy of Hastings Public Schools.
When you walk into Hastings High School (HHS) for the first time, you are met with a big staircase. To the left of the staircase, you see the school counselors office; inside are bright, colorful rooms that are full of life. This is where you meet the two new school counselors, Lisa Boucher and Sarah Grigsby. These new counselors are here to show that they can be trusted and are safe people to come to in a time of need.
Although both of these counselors may be new to some, they both have experience before coming to HHS. Grigsby has been a counselor for six years now, working in high, middle and elementary school settings. Before going into counseling, Grigsby was a social worker for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for three years, adding to her experience working with people.
“Before I worked in Grand Island for three years, I was a counselor for Kindergarten through Fifth grade. The past two years, I was a Middle School through High School teacher at High Plains. This year is my first year solely being a High School counselor,” Grigsby said.
In order to get where Grigsby is today, she had to go through training and has personal experiences with children and adults. Grigsby learned through working together with children during her time as a counselor and even going back to her work at DHHS.
“I went to school, and they trained me; they taught me things such as how to talk to people and how to manage it all. I also think it’s just a personality type of thing too. I had a lot of people just tell me throughout my entire life that they feel like they can come talk to me and that they feel safe with me,” Grigsby said.
Although Grigsby is new to HHS, Boucher is not necessarily new; she is returning after a year-long break from HHS. Boucher left last year to explore a new career in teaching college students and to address some family medical issues. Before she left, she had 19 years of experience with students, both as a counselor and as a teacher.
“I like the college, the career planning, the ‘what’s my next step part of counseling,’ and the academic advising piece too. The reason that I decided to come back when the opportunity came up was that I missed my students. Even though there are good days and bad days, I enjoy seeing the energy of high school students,” Boucher said.
Boucher’s goal for this year is to relearn the things that she has forgotten in her year away. She also wants to be more proactive with her students, balancing her work life with the life of students.
“This is a big job, so I have to relearn the things that I have forgotten and be a little more proactive in planning for students as well. Right now, I feel very overwhelmed by whatever’s hitting me in the face at the moment. I’m very fortunate to have Mr. Bittfield, Mrs. Adams, and now Mrs. Grigsby on my team to help me out,” said Boucher.
Boucher provides students with a place where they can go when they have troubles or worries they do not want to share with others. Students are able to use her room when they need a quiet place to talk about problems they may be having in the classroom or at home.
“I heard it described once as a safe place. Maybe not always comfortable, but safe. I don’t know if there’s a difference, but it may not always be like what you hear, but it’s still a safe place to come,” said Boucher.
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