Q: How long have you worked as a high school counselor?

A: I have over twenty years of high school counseling.

Q: What kind of high school did you work at before you came here?

A: I worked at a public high school very similar to Clayton. [There were] about 1,700 kids. It is in an area called Newton and about 8 miles west of Boston, a suburb of Boston. It is a public high school, a very high achieving school. Its demographics were very similar to Clayton but on a maybe double the size. Kids looking to go to really selective colleges, the pressure and intensity they put on themselves — it is very similar.

Q: What made you decide to leave Newton South and come to St. Louis?

A: My wife accepted a position at Washington University. Once she accepted that position, which was really good move for her, she became the vice-provost of admissions…. From that standpoint, it was time for me to find a job; I was very fortunate that a position opened up at Clayton High School, and I was able to interview for it.

Q: What made you decide to work as a high school counselor?

A: I was a biology teacher at a public high school in inner-city Chicago…. The high school I was working at was more of a place where kids went to school and then went on to work; …not many kids were thinking about post-secondary education…. Once I started [working as a counselor] and became more and more involved, I really liked the impact I could have on students. I was pleasantly surprised that with the contact I was having with them, I could still have a positive impact. That is how I became a counselor.

Q: Do you have a favorite memory as a counselor or a teacher?

A: My favorite memory always is a product of when students come in with a smile based on something that they have accomplished that they did not think they could accomplish [before]. It really makes me feel good when a student knows they [can] do something that they feel like they could not do and I was a little bit of part of that. Most of the time it is already in them, but me helping them give a little bit of that out of them to help them understand “Yeah, it’s there” and you can do it especially when it comes to what they want to achieve after high school. That is probably one of my favorite things to see in being a counselor or a teacher.

Q: Do you have any particular goals for the Class of 2018?  What do you think would be your message to juniors?

A: My goal and my message is [that] I want to help them finish navigating the next two years of high school, especially with junior year being such a pivotal year. Ms. McBride has already set a really good foundation. She left me some excellent notes, and I want to build off the notes that she left me. My goal is to not have a disruption in the safe place that she has established for the Class of 2018. I want to have that be continuous. My goal is not to disrupt that or have less confidence from parents, from faculty, from students, and me helping this junior class navigate the last few years of high school.