Photo taken by Grayson Harms
Wendy Anderson has been working at South Salem High School for five years. She previously worked at Lebanon High School for three years before coming to South. For her bachelor’s degree, Anderson attended Western Oregon University (WOU) where she was a double major in Social Science and Spanish. Afterward, she went to Oregon State University for her master’s degree in counseling.
“I always knew I wanted to work in education. My dad was a teacher and a principal while I was growing up. So I was always very comfortable in school and I loved learning. I was like, a real rule-following student. I assumed I wanted to be a teacher because that is just what I had exposure to. So when I went to WOU I thought I would be a middle or high school social studies teacher. After I got my bachelor’s degree, I had to shadow a teacher, and I went to Spain to be an English teaching assistant for a year. The experience in Spain itself was awesome, but that job made me realize that teaching and planning lessons gives me a lot of anxiety,” Anderson said.
Counseling
Learning from her experience in Spain, when she came back to Oregon to get her master’s, she switched to still be in the education field, just not teaching. From there, she went into counseling, and in 2016, she officially became a counselor.
“Counseling has changed a lot since I started. In 2016, I had never really had a conversation with a student who was thinking about suicide. Now, we are serving in these crisis mental health spaces with students, and it was a huge learning curve for me to figure out since it was such a change. Especially now that students have gone through different experiences with COVID-19. I had to learn and figure out which resources should I refer students to, and what is my role as a school counselor in these spaces with students,” Anderson said.
Counseling does not only entail helping student’s mental health, but also checking in with them physically. She helps organize schedules and sort out classes for students. Anderson’s job may have changed from when she started, but her favorite thing about being a counselor has not.
“I love getting to know students, it is a unique job because every day is different. I can go in with an idea of how my day is going to go and it can change in an instant, solely based on what a student’s needs are. Some days, I will meet with a student in crisis who shares something vulnerable with me that no one else has ever heard, and an hour later, I will be looking over schedules and transcripts,” Anderson said.
Learning as a Counselor
Some students may not work well with certain teachers, or maybe students are not in the right classes, or there may be problems with transcripts and credits. Counselors fix all these problems for students as a part of their job. She is also constantly learning new ways to help students.
“Something helpful for me is remembering to be okay with not knowing things. I think sometimes to prove our worth or value, we try to pretend that we know what we are doing. Being okay with not knowing and asking questions is how you can succeed in life,” Anderson said.
Advice for Students
Anderson has been a counselor for over 8 years and has gained a substantial amount of knowledge in her field of work. But her advice can help anyone going into any career.
“Reach for things that you do not think you are qualified for, try something new and see where it takes you. I feel like I have had a lot of opportunities that have come to me because I tried something different. I may have thought, ‘I might not be qualified to do something, but I think I would be good at it,’ and just threw my name out there,” Anderson said.
