From the Executive Director: Make Your Students Welcome

The most common thing I hear when a student walks into my office is something to the effect of, “Your office is so welcoming – I love it here!” I typically respond with a joke about how I spend more time at school than I do at my house, so I want it to be a space I am comfortable in. It was a deliberate choice to decorate my office with personal touches. I want my students to see that I am a person with a plethora of interests who pulls inspiration from a wide variety of sources. I’ve designed my space to be calming with salt lamps, pillows, fidgets, essential oils diffusing in the air, coloring books and crystals. I have motivational quotes, art and cards hanging up on my “amoeba wall” (named so because over the last 15 years, every time I find something that speaks to me, I add it to the wall; the collection has traveled to four different offices with me and just keeps growing). You’ll find pictures of me with my husband, my family, my friends. And you can’t look anywhere without seeing either a Steelers logo, Baby Yoda, something covered in glitter or a caticorn (my spirit animal; shout out to current CSCA school counselor of the year Curtis Darragh and past National School Counselor of the Year Brian Coleman for making spirit animals a thing!)

My guess is that a lot of you have offices that are similar and share reflections of who you are with your students. I think it’s critically important for our students to see that we are not just an adult who is working with them on their academic, career and social/emotional development, but we are humans, too. That student who maybe isn’t ready to talk about how they are struggling with their identity, but notices the safe space sticker on my door and starts to build a connection with me talking about what music we like, can begin to trust me with the heavier stuff. Or the student that is struggling with a bad decision they made and sees the quote on my wall saying “Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo” gets that I also know what it’s like to make a mistake and work through it.  And just seeing that I have created a cozy, welcoming, Zen-like work space for myself so I can deal with stress and anxiety as it comes up, lets them know that I understand how hard it can be to deal with those feelings.

Our students deserve school counselors who they can connect with and relate to.The focus of this newsletter is “Racial Justice Starts at School.” It’s no secret that our profession is filled with a lot of people who look like me – white women. We try our best to connect with all students, but we still need to encourage and support more males and more people of color to join our profession. We need to acknowledge and address issues of racism in our schools to show ALL students we support them even if we haven’t shared their experiences. We owe it to the students in Connecticut to make our offices – and our schools – places where they say, “This is so welcoming – I love it here!”

Contact Michelle Catucci, CSCA executive director, at execdirectorcsca@gmail.com.