School Counselors 101

San Juan Hills High School counselors Jenna Jordheim and Kassey Kessler make a difference by providing help and support with struggles and hardships faced in students lives.

Jenna Jordheim has always worked with kids, as an undergraduate student she went to Cal State San Marcos and then went to National University to get her masters so he could become a school counselor. She had previously been a counselor in San Francisco, Capo High School, and now San Juan Hills.

Kasey Kessler as an undergraduate student first went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and then went to Chapman University for graduate school and got her masters in counseling. She was involved in many internships at Brea Olinda High School, Kraemer Middle School, and Oxford Academy. This year is Kessler’s first year as a full time counselor at SJHHS.

As a counselor, a new challenge is given everyday to help students.

“Sometimes you’ll have a student that is really contemplating suicide, other days it’s helping students get a 504 plan, or having a meeting with parents and the student, other times is giving classroom presentations like Signs of Suicide, going to trainings on anxiety, and other days I get to meet with students all day to see what’s going on and to just help them out” says Kessler.

Seeing students overcome their problems is a rewarding aspect with being a school counselor.

“You never know who you’re going to reach but occasionally you get that one student that will come back and say thank you so much for helping me… it’s a good feeling to know that there’s somebody I made a difference for” says Jordheim.

“Whenever I see that student feels better at the end of a conversation or has a plan for what they’re going to do with whatever issue is going on, it’s pretty incredible to be able to watch them overcome their hardships” says Kessler.

The counselors hope to achieve many goals this school year. They are working on raising attendance, reaching out to all 10th graders with the SOS presentation, and helping freshman bring their grades up that have been struggling.

Both counselors hope to benefit students and have a positive impact on their lives.

“I want to make students high school days easier, if it’s something I can help them with  academically or socially, I want them to know that they can come see me at anytime” says Jordheim.

“I really want to help students overcome the hardships going on in their life… I think teenagers have a lot of stress in their lives and I want to be able to help them get through their problems and have them realize that they have a future and that there is going to be amazing things after high school” Kessler.

While there at school providing support for students, they like to have fun with their free time.

Counselor Jenna Jordheim plays soccer twice a week and loves to travel as much as she can. Counselor Kasey Kessler is training for her third half marathon, she really likes painting, hiking, going to the beach, and loves to travel.

Kessler and Jordheim have an open door policy where students are able to see the school counselors at anytime. All students have to simply do is come up to the front office, ask to see a counselor, and a majority of the time the student will be able to meet with one of them. If they happen to be unavailable at the moment, they will get back to the student within a week.

The counselor’s office is meant to be a safe space to come talk to the counselors about any issue the student may be dealing with. Everything said is kept confidential unless the student is getting hurt physically, then they will have to tell someone to get help.