LOS ALAMITOS, CA — As students continue to trudge through the fall semester, it’s important to know about different resources available to them through the college and career center – especially the help of one of Los Al’s College Ready Counselors, Dr. Lewis. 

Q & A with Dr. Lewis:

This interview was edited and condensed

Q: What types of things do you help students with?

A: My role is a little bit different; I have a caseload of students that I check in on or that I monitor their progress behind the scene, but I don’t schedule their classes and do all that stuff. I just have a little bit more flexibility. I think of myself a little bit like an intervention counselor, like I get to see where there is an area of need either for a class or a group of students and I get to be creative and work with Mrs. Schaeffer [the Los Al College and Career Counselor] and the counseling team to devise a strategy to support those needs.

Sometimes I’ll send little kudos to [students’ classes] and say good job, I noticed you’re working really hard, keep it up. [For] other students, if I see a dip, like what we’re doing with Griffin Lab intervention, is [that] we’re monitoring D and F grades at the six-week, 12-week, and final grade marks. And we’re pulling those grades and any students that we see with a D or F. We’re starting to be a little more proactive and inviting those kids into Griffin Lab for either tutoring, homework time, to meet with me, support from a teacher, or something like that. And that’s when I’ll do a little more hands-on outreach.

Q: Do students come in often to ask for college and career help?

A: Yeah, for advice and to just decompress and debrief. So the way my approach works is I have some students… that I monitor grades and check progress behind the scenes, and as long as everything’s staying good and copacetic and they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, then we don’t really meet. And then otherwise, there are students that I meet with every Tuesday because they’re seniors and they’re in jeopardy of maybe not graduating. But then [there are] others that just drop in to say hi because they haven’t seen me in a while and they just want to share that they’re doing great. It kind of just depends.

Q: What type of work do you do for Griffin Lab?

A: I’ve kind of stepped into a supporting role this year because we’re trying this more proactive intervention approach of pulling kids in and target, you know, really actively inviting those students to take advantage of the resource. I think that requires more manpower and just more hands on deck, and since that’s something I’m more passionate about anyway, I think that it just made sense for me to step into that a little bit more. How it’s kind of shaking out now is that I’ve kind of become the peer tutor side of things whereas Mr. Platt, our assistant principal, manages the schedule and he manages everything for Griffin Lab and then I support Mr. Platt and I kind of have a branch where I manage the tutoring part.

Q: What are the most common things that students will ask for help when coming to the College and Career Center?

A: It really depends on where the students are at, but most common, because we’re in October and it’s college season, is our college applications – anything relating to that, including letters, essays, personal statements, those kind of things. I work with a lot of students in identifying and creating effective self-management strategies and time-management strategies, ADHD, anxiety. Just all of the things that can negatively impact [people’s abilities] to be a successful student, that’s a lot of what I end up discussing with students; how to turn those from maybe a hindrance or a negative into an asset or a positive that we can use to feel more effective in how we approach school.

Q: What tools and resources do you offer students at the College and Career Center?

A: I’m lucky to be a part of this team. Mrs. Shaeffer especially is in classrooms at least four times a year talking all grades, and some grades multiple times a year. She’ll deliver classroom presentations on how to get ready for college, how to navigate freshman year, finding a career, and all these things. We have college rep visits. So in the fall, it’s a very busy time to have reps coming and visiting. We’ve had great turnouts this year, hundreds of kids at a time showing up to some of them. We also attend financial aid workshops and different counselor conferences, and so we take that information and bring it back and share it with the students. We have an Instagram account [where] we share updates and information and we provide scholarship information. We help with career navigation and we offer a skilled trades lab. Typically the big events we do are classroom presentations, career technical education where we create access and opportunities for that school-to-career connection, the skilled trades fair, we have a college and career fair where tons of different employers and industries come to campus. We also have different college nights.

Dr. Lewis is a wonderful person of support ready to help students wherever a struggle is present. Make sure to visit her in the College and Career Center or email her at [email protected] if you need any help related to college readiness.