Ripley Middle School counselor Susan Jones, West Virginia’s 2019-2020 Middle School Counselor of the Year, has racked up another professional honor: She is one of ten school counselors nationwide chosen to receive the 2021 National Certified School Counselor Award. The award recognizes “school counselors who have invested extraordinary effort to meet the needs of students, families and stakeholders in their school community during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the National Board for Certified Counselors in a press release announcing the awards.
The WVEA member has a reputation for being kind, according to her students, and for efficiently managing and de-escalating, if necessary, scenarios that are sometimes fraught with anxiety and high emotion, according to her colleagues.
Jones said it is a “privilege” to walk beside middle schoolers on their journey to adulthood. “I have the awesome opportunity to build trust with the hurting, cheer the accolades of the successful, and help build a positive school climate between the two … where kids show kindness and support to each other through these bumpy years of adolescence,” she added.