High School Counselor Interview Report

The person I interviewed was my Senior High School Counselor, Ms. Tanya Arakawa. This interview took place in the Guidance Office of Ontario High School. This was an in-person interview and the process itself was lengthy. It did take a while of waiting before I can actually have the chance to follow up with the interview questions. Then so it began, I walked into her office, said hello, and began the interview of how it is being a high school counselor. The most important thing that I learned and found meaningful about high school counselors was their time. When being involved in this career, it’s never a typical day. Counselors like to think of it as an ideal day. The day is always busy, meaning there is a lot of work to do but also comes work interruptions. For example, when I was waiting for the interview, Ms. Arakawa was talking to a student’s parent. She mentioned that the parent happened to drop by out of nowhere wanting to talk about her daughter's danger of not graduating. This is just an example of time during work hours;
The biggest challenge a counselor faces is getting everything done by deadlines for the students. There are so many students to look after that it’s nearly impossible to complete if they fall behind. Another challenge is being in the middle of situations. The purpose of a counselor is to guide the student for their best chance. Though when doing so, the parents and teachers need to have a say to the situation. If a student needs a class to graduate but is giving the teacher a hard time during instruction, the teacher has the power to ask for child removal from their class. In the counselor's point of view, the student needs this class to graduate but still wants to acquire the teacher's decision. Decisions will then need to be taken. These are the challenges the counselor has to face on a daily