Castlewood School District K-12 counselor Ashley Price grew up in a small district that shared a school counselor with a neighboring district. “I always felt like it would have been nice if she were around more,” Price says. Now one of her favorite things about her job is that she gets to be a daily onsite presence for her students.

“I describe Castlewood’s school counseling program as comprehensive,” Price says. “We start at kindergarten with character education, and we go all the way up through 12th grade with college and career readiness. We cover all the domains of school counseling: social/emotional, academic and career.”

In 2017, Price became a National Certified School Counselor, a certification that requires specific coursework, at least 100 hours of postgraduate supervision, an endorsement from a professional colleague and two academic years of postgraduate work experience as a school counselor.

An early-career school counselor once told Price and her graduate school classmates that the first three years in the profession would likely be among their most difficult.

Now five years into the profession, Price says the advice was accurate: “I’ve gotten a lot more confident. I feel like I have a grasp on things now—my role at the school and how I help these kids. Those first couple of years at a new school, students are getting to know you, so they may not always come to you with their problems, but now that I’ve been here for a while, I’m a lot busier than I was then, simply because they’re more comfortable coming to me with things I can help them with.”

When a recent Castlewood graduate stopped to seek advice from Price on the transition to college, she was deeply honored that the student still felt comfortable coming to her for help, even after graduation.

Castlewood students regularly use SDMyLife, and seniors are required to do career shadowing in a field that interests them. Students in the district can also take career and technical education courses at nearby Northeast Technical High School in Watertown.

Price consistently encourages her students to attend campus visit days at postsecondary institutions. “I think those really inspire students to a college or career choice,” she says. “It helps them to envision their future, which in turn helps to motivate them in school now.”

Price meets regularly with several of her colleagues from nearby school districts. “It’s so helpful to meet up with them and discuss issues specific to counseling, especially when most of us are the only counselors in our district,” Price says.

One of the biggest challenges facing school counselors today, Price says, is the influence of social media: “Basic communication skills can be lost on kids these days because they prefer screen communication to talking in-person. This often leads to conflict, since it’s much easier to bully from a distance.”

She was encouraged recently when, after an argument with some friends, a student reflected to Price, “I should have ‘pressed Pause.’” Price had recently led a lesson with students that taught them to mentally “press Pause,” like on a remote control, to take time to reflect on whether they should actually say a particular thing either online or in-person.

“I was like, oh my gosh, it clicked!” says Price. “That was an a-ha moment for that student and me.”

Castlewood students celebrate National School Counseling Week