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For the first time in history, Louisiana had not just one, but two school counselors nominated for the American School Councilor Association Counselor of the Year Award.
And better yet, both represent Terrebonne Parish schools.
But for Jennifer Degruise of Montegut Middle School, one of five finalists, and Christina Falgout of South Terrebonne High School, one of 38 semi-finalists, the award represented an opportunity for so much more.
“It’s nice to be recognized and just know people know you’re doing a good job, but I think that the bigger picture is what it brings to the counseling world in the good and the bad and what we need to focus on, and what I want for councilors to be able to do in this parish and this state and this nation,” Degruise said.
In just six short years as a counselor in Terrebonne Parish including four at Oaklawn Junior High and now two at Montegut Middle, Degruise has begun to lead a revolution of sorts in the way school councilors do their jobs.
Using data to back up her plan, Degruise successfully shifted her role as a school counselor – removing roles such as hall duty, testing, master scheduling and paper work and instead spend the lion’s share of her time focusing on her relationship with students.
“The relationship is your basis on everything and if you’re not out in front of the kids. If you’re not working with them on a daily basis in whatever capacity that is, being proactive with them, you’re not building a relationship,” Degruise said. “Over the years, [school counselors] have accumulated the role of paperwork, and it’s not OK, because the bottom line is when you’re waiting on kids to come and see you, the problem has already happened. And yes, that’s going to happen, but when that’s all you do because you’re drowning underneath all the other non-counselor related roles and you can never leave your office because you have so much paper to do, you’re not building those relationships, and you’re not being proactive in solving problems before they start.”
Degruise, along with Montegut Middle principal Kelly Dupre, have made presentations both locally and statewide explaining the importance of a good counseling program to the development of students. Degruise commends Dupre for understanding the true role of a school counselor and allowing her to excel in that role at Montegut Middle.
“There are obstacles everywhere, but I think once you see a good counseling program and you see it working to its full capacity, you can’t help but want one,” Dupre said. “[Degruise] does a great job. She not only steers them in the right direction but takes the time to really and truly get to know the kids.”
The results are noticeable at Montegut Middle, where Degruise’s extra time allows her to participate in other school programs such as a positive post card program where teachers fill out a postcard with a positive message to students or parents and mail them to their homes, employee and student of the month programs, a student council, a grief group on Thursdays and most importantly classroom lessons every Wednesday to alternating grade levels to really drive home that personal interaction with students, among many other things.
“She’s great. She knows what she’s doing. She makes you feel comfortable around her. You can talk to her about anything,” said Montegut Middle seventh grader and Student Council Vice President Claire Verdin. “She becomes like your best friend because you can trust her more than anyone. She loves every student. She shows love and affection to everyone, and she’s just a great person.”
Degruise spends one day a week at Pointe-aux-Chenes Elementary, one of the schools that feeds into Montegut Middle, and she coordinates with her friend and collegue Falgout at South Terrebonne as Montegut is one of the schools that feeds into the Bourg High School – both in an effort to make the respective school transitions as smooth as possible for students.
“We work hand in hand, so when the kids transfer from that middle school to that high school, she’s kind of filled me in a little bit on the history and what’s going on there,” Falgout explained.
Degruise and Falgout actually nominated each other for the Louisiana Counselor of the Year Awards two years ago, and each won in their respective category – middle school and high school. The American School Counselors Association then chose them as a finalist and a semi-finalist, respectively, for the national award, which went to Cory Notestine of Alamosa High School in Alamosa, Colorado.
All of the nominees were invited to Washington, D.C., in late January.
“It was amazing to see so many dedicated, caring people in a room, the best of the best and then to share ideas. It was phenomenal,” Degruise said.
There, the nominations spoke with lawmakers from their respective areas of the country and even got to meet First Lady Michelle Obama and actress Connie Britton, who played a high school counselor in the TV series “Friday Night Lights,” at the White House.
“She was telling us how important our roles were and that it was important that they brought that ceremony to the White House,” said Falgout of her experience with the First Lady.
Despite the awards and accolades, the duo contends that there is nothing more rewarding than positively connecting with a student.
“Every singe graduation ceremony brings tears to my eye,” Dupre said. “Sometimes we have students that maybe are not quite where they need to be in high school and they struggle a little bit getting through high school either because of home life or because of their academics, when you see that student cross the stage, it’s probably as good as watching your own child cross the high school graduation stage.”
Montegut Middle School counselor Jennifer Degruise (left), one of five American School Counselor Association Counselor of the Year Award finalists, discusses the creation of school-wide testing shirts with seventh grader and Student Council Vice President Claire Verdin.
