Holly Guelig: ‘I get to be a sport changer’ – VCU Information

By Owen Wachter
Faculty of Training

Holly Guelig has all the time liked instructing.

“After I was slightly child rising up in Fredericksburg, I’d collect the opposite youngsters in our neighborhood and educate them music classes,” she stated. “I did not know something about music. I simply liked instructing. I created worksheets for the opposite youngsters. I took it very severely.”

In Could, the Virginia Faculty Counselor Affiliation named Guelig, a counselor at Greenwood Elementary Faculty in Henrico County, as its Virginia Elementary Faculty Counselor of the Yr.

Guelig majored in psychology in faculty, hoping to develop into a toddler psychologist or therapist. She attended Germanna Neighborhood School in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and thrived in her psychology programs, however the required math programs have been one other matter.

“Rising up, I had a studying incapacity in math. My mind works slightly otherwise relating to numbers,” she stated. “I like our faculty system, however I used to be under no circumstances ready for faculty math. I saved considering, ‘If I can not go math, I can not graduate.’”

She discovered a math teacher at Germanna who was prepared to assist her enhance her math proficiency. Guelig earned an A in her top notch with him, adopted by one other A, after which one other. Her confidence constructed as her grade common improved. “My teacher utterly disarmed my fears,” she stated. “It’s such a wonderful factor when a trainer can attain that one individual in such a significant method.”

Guelig was working full time in retail administration your complete time. “Even on the job, I saved looking for methods to assist folks,” she stated. “It was by no means about simply promoting garments. It was all about, ‘How can I aid you be ok with your self?’”

Her managers liked it, however her gross sales associates weren’t so certain. “They might say, ‘It is simply promoting garments, so why make it about greater than that?’” She determined to re-dedicate herself to actually serving to others. She left that job and commenced working at a psychiatric hospital.

“That’s once I realized that I needed to be on the prevention aspect,” she stated. “I needed to work with kids, teenagers and households earlier than they bought into disaster.”

Guelig ultimately enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth College, majoring in psychology with a minor in non secular research within the School of Humanities and Sciences. She was speaking together with her undergraduate psychology advisor, who occurred to be a faculty counseling pupil within the graduate program on the Faculty of Training. Guelig advised her advisor that she had all the time liked the concept of instructing, however didn’t wish to educate math, science or studying. The advisor requested if she had ever thought-about faculty counseling.

“I nonetheless get chills excited about it,” Guelig stated. “It was like … sport over. It was the right marriage of what I needed to do – my dream job.”

It’s one in all many fond reminiscences Guelig has of her time at VCU.

“After I began at VCU as an undergrad, all of my professors have been so extremely useful,” she stated. “They noticed that I used to be placing within the effort. They actually, really grew to become my mentors. I felt very a lot at residence. I felt like I had a complete crew in my nook.”

By the point she earned her bachelor’s diploma in 2009, Guelig’s grades had improved considerably. She thought-about many graduate faculties.

“The VCU Faculty of Training was among the best within the nation, and my advisor had nice issues to say about it,” she stated. “I appeared on the school and actually appreciated what I noticed. I couldn’t think about going anyplace else.”

Guelig earned her M.Ed. in pre-Okay-12 faculty counseling from the Faculty of Training in 2012. The next 12 months, she joined Greenwood Elementary Faculty as a counselor.

“Our ‘dream crew’ works so arduous to create a studying atmosphere full of affection, belonging and enjoyable,” she stated. “It’s a labor of affection to be a faculty counselor, and I’m past blessed that I get to serve my Greenwood college students and households on this capability.”

For Guelig, probably the most rewarding factor helps – and instructing – kids.

“The most effective factor about my job is that I get to be a sport changer for teenagers and households,” she stated. “I get to show kids that being mentally wholesome doesn’t imply having to be excellent. I assist them to know that there’s no true regular, and that they’re not alone.”

As a part of her job, she conducts weekly classes with kids on social/emotional studying. She incorporates psychological well being and wellness into these classes, exhibiting kids how the mind works at their age and what meaning for emotional regulation.

“I exploit the coaching from my grasp’s program at school counseling,” she stated. “For some time, I assumed one thing was unsuitable with my mind as a result of I had a studying incapacity, however in grad faculty I realized that your mind can change. I want I had identified that once I was youthful.

“Simply because you will have a studying incapacity in a single space does not imply it is all the time going to be like that. I attempt to deliver issues that I’ve realized, and that we’ve all realized as an grownup, to our kids right here at Greenwood in a method that’s helpful.”