By JURNEE LOUDER – Staff Writer
ODYSSEY Online Staff Writer Jurnee Louder sits down with Clarke Central High School’s newest counselor, Dr. Susan Strickland, for a brief introduction.
Jurnee Louder: Where were you born and raised?
Dr. Susan Strickland: My family is from Douglas County — Lithia Springs, specifically. I like for my students to know that my sister and I are first-generation college students — granddaughters of a sharecropper — because I think it’s a testimony to the power of education.
JL: How would you describe your job?
SS: Honestly, it’s chaotic at times. It can be unpredictable. It can be aggravating, too, (but) no matter how much planning, scheduling, and preparing one does, it all goes out the window if a child is in need. Conversely, the constant change is also one of the most rewarding parts of my job. I have the rare privilege of working with a student when he or she hits rock bottom, so to speak, but I also get to walk alongside as he or she finds the strength to climb out of it. So, for all my “preaching” about the importance of comprehensive curriculum, there is still something special about forming those individual ties with students.
JL: Why and how did you decide to become a counselor?
SS: Although my Bachelors Degree is in English, my minor was in psychology. I actually completed all of the courses qualifying me for a clinical psychology graduate program; however, after graduation, I worked for a prominent physician in Atlanta as an intake and triage specialist and realized that private practice did not appeal to me. I thought school counseling might be a good fit, which meant I would have to be certified to teach. At the time, Georgia required school counselors to teach for three years prior to being certified in counseling.
So, I returned to Georgia State, added on education classes for my teaching certificate and started working as a high school English teacher. I discovered that I absolutely loved the classroom, and even though I still completed my Masters Degree in a counseling program, I was very hesitant to leave the classroom. Nonetheless, a job came open in the counseling department at my school, and I just felt that I shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to try it. Honestly, I hated the job at first, because I missed my students, and I missed teaching. Furthermore, counseling at the time wasn’t the job it is today. The old “Guidance Counselor” was half administrative assistant and half crisis interventionist/therapist.
However, as the role has morphed into that of “Professional School Counselor,” I would have to say that I’m glad I made the switch. It’s like the best of all worlds. I get to work with students individually, but I also get to deliver a classroom curriculum, as well as a small group curriculum. I think my experience in the classroom makes me a better school counselor.
JL: Why did you leave Cobb County?
SS: I wanted to move to Athens for personal reasons, but professionally, I think it was time for me to leave my comfort zone. I like to push and grow constantly, and it was just time to really shake things up. Even so, I wasn’t willing to regress 15-20 years into that old role of guidance counselor — that old, antiquated way of counseling students that looks something like a counselor in her office seeing students one on one, but only when they ask for help, or when they are too emotional to do anything else. Clarke Central was the perfect fit… Every school in which I have worked describes itself as a “family,” but Clarke Central is the only school that actually lives up to the description.
JL: Is there anything else you’d like to say or want our readers to know?
SS: I just like the direction that the profession is going, because it expands what we can do, it improves our impact, it makes a teacher’s job easier and it helps us improve the lives of all students.
