Mid-Missouri School Counselor of the Year honoree promotes a proactive approach to emotional health
“It’s hard to give up control, and we have very little control over this current situation,” Sara Garner said of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on families and all of society.
It helps to remember that God is still in charge.
“I pray for students, parents and teachers to focus on the things they do have control over and be able to let go of the things that they do not,” said Mrs. Garner, a Catholic mother and school counselor for St. Peter Interparish School in Jefferson City.
Herself a St. Peter graduate, Mrs. Garner is this year’s recipient of the Missouri School Counselor Association’s Mid-Missouri Region Counselor of the Year Award.
She accepted the honor at a March 3 ceremony at Columbia College in Columbia.
St. Peter Interparish School Principal Gayle Trachsel nominated her with help from some parents, students and fellow St. Peter educators.
The selection committee for the award took four main factors into consideration: building up leadership at the school; promoting service among students; integrating a data-driven program; and incorporating innovation and innovative activities with school counseling.
This is Mrs. Garner’s second year as the school counselor at St. Peter.
The school has more than 500 students.
“There are teachers who have been here since I was a student,” she noted. “It’s kind of fun to work with the teachers who taught me!”
She relishes her role in helping children find their purpose.
“My job is to help them recognize their strengths and use those strengths to help fill-in those areas where they have some weakness,” she said. “Even when things aren’t going well, they can look at all those positive things and their strengths and pull from those.”
She noted that Catholic schools work with families to educate and form the whole child — mind, body and spirit.
During a typical school week when in-person instruction is taking place, she spends some one-on-one time with students and leads classroom discussions about navigating the world of academics, extracurricular activities, family life and friendships.
“‘Social Emotional Learning’ — that’s the buzz word,” she said.
Sometimes a teacher will recommend that a student have a discussion with Mrs. Garner. She often follows-up with those students about new approaches they can take to help make their classroom experience better.
By junior high, students are often comfortable signing themselves up to meet regularly with her.
Some visit with her in small groups so she can help them work through minor disputes.
Virtues and Fruits of the Spirit
Each month, the school focuses on a positive character trait and pairs it with one of the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) and fruits of the Holy Spirit (charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity).
“We’re always trying to make those connections so the kids are aware of what those words mean and how they can live them out every day,” she said.
She spends time in each kindergarten through fifth-grade classroom every other week, teaching age-appropriate lessons that reinforce these character traits and virtues.
“I like to sort of vertically align the lessons,” she said. “Whatever I do with kindergarteners — such as a lesson on self-control — when they get to first grade, they can hopefully say, ‘I remember learning about that last year.’ And then we can tell them, ‘You’ve grown some since then. Let’s take it to the first-grade level and see how it applies to you now that you’re older.’”
Mrs. Garner also helps Mrs. Trachsel evaluate the data from the annual standardized tests for students in grades 3 through 8.
This helps identify potential candidates for accelerated learning programs and academic extracurricular activities.
The data also helps educators reinforce strengths and address weaknesses in the school’s curriculum.
She works with the school’s Student Leadership Team (SLT), a group of sixth- through eighth-graders who help plan and promote events to make the school a better place and more fun.
One of their favorite events is “Saints in the Schoolyard,” held each year on a Friday evening near All Saints Day. SLT members dress up as saints as students pass through the school with glow-sticks and toast marshmallows for s’mores outside.
“Here for a reason”
Mrs. Garner is committed to helping destigmatize concerns about emotional health.
“It’s important for students and their parents to know that it’s okay to ask the counselor for help at your school,” she said. “It’s like going to the eye doctor when you need glasses or getting a cast if you have a broken leg.
“We’re here for a reason, and it’s okay if you need us,” she said.
She believes she’s able to do her job well because of the support of parents and her fellow educators.
Especially with SLT events, student participation usually can’t happen without parent participation “at the same or at an even greater level than the students.”
It also helps when parents call and ask for help.
“When their child is having a concern and they do reach out to me for support, that makes me feel supported by them,” she said. “That lets me know that my message is getting out there and they feel comfortable coming to me and are confident that I can help them.”
“God’s got this”
Shortly after in-school instruction ended in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mrs. Garner and Paula Wekenborg, director of the school’s Vogelweid Learning Center special learning program, began contacting school families.
They asked about how online learning is going, whether families have adequate internet bandwidth and devices to do their work from home, and how the students are dealing with the anxiety of an unfamiliar situation.
Mrs. Garner also posts resources and practical information on her school website about promoting students’ and families’ emotional health.
She also makes herself available one-on-one by phone when needed.
“A lot of things figure into whether a student is stressed out or not during this time,” she said. “Some parents are working from home, some are not working from home, and some are working outside the home. All of that figures into what each student is able to accomplish.”
She believes her own doubling-down on prayer and reflection each morning is making a difference.
“Pretty much every day, my prayer has been to be inspired by the Holy Spirit,” she said. “Whether it’s for me to be inspired to do something that day, or for others to be inspired to do something kind for someone in their home or outside their home — just having that inspiration and knowing that ‘God’s got this’ — that’s what I’m taking to Him in prayer.”
