I am a school psychologist of 34 years who has had a very fulfilling and rewarding career. Coming out of graduate school, and for the first third of my career, I would characterize myself as being a traditional practitioner in the sense that I provided individualized services for mainly special needs students.

As I started to grow in my career, with my background and interests in social-emotional learning (SEL), I felt I should be able to make more of an impact in my school community and really foster positive change. I gradually began to take some risks in reaching out to more kids and making myself available to the greater school population. When the Columbine massacre occurred in 1999 and schools were mandated to respond in some fashion, I was very fortunate to have a mentor, a consultant for the Department of Education in Rhode Island, who pushed me to make bigger changes in my professional life. Getting out of my comfort zone (the known and the familiar) was intimidating (getting up in front of large groups of people and talking about what was important to me with respect to teaching that a positive environment that is safe, with strong student-teacher relationships, is essential to learning).

We worked together to for almost a year to create the school’s Peer Helping Network. This was not a traditional leadership group, full of high academic achievers or the most popular kids in the school, but instead they were a group of diverse students (some of whom have definitely seen the inside of the assistant principal’s office on more than one occasion). We worked with this initial group of sixty students and they gradually developed a common commitment to making their school a better, safer and more accepting place.

Here I am12 years later. It has been wonderful to see what kids can do when you give them opportunities to have ownership and make change. Their activities, including annually facilitating a student-friendly orientation for eighth graders, hosting the Common Ground Café (a “safe” recreational activity, where students can showcase their musical talents), and working to solve adolescent issues (like dating violence, substance abuse, and bullying), have absolutely changed the climate of the school. There is universal acceptance for what they do and who they are (something that I was doubtful of what I started this project).

I look back, now in the winter of my career, and I think of all the amazing things that have happened; the kids who I have learned from and the kids who have learned from me. I am not just the “school shrink” who only the “troubled” or “bad” kids get to see, but I have credibility with just about everyone and feel like I am really part of the school community. My career far more rewarding and that makes me feel really good about who I am and what I do.

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