{"id":108646,"date":"2015-10-26T15:33:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T21:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/middle-school-counselor-tapped-as-among-best-in-state\/"},"modified":"2015-10-26T15:33:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T21:33:51","slug":"middle-school-counselor-tapped-as-among-best-in-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/middle-school-counselor-tapped-as-among-best-in-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle school counselor tapped as among best in state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cortez
Cortez Middle School counselor Carrie Schneider-Lemay, pictured with her service dog Buddy, recently was named a semifinalist for the state Counselor of the Year award.<\/span>Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sincere. Effective. Outgoing. Positive. Respected.<\/p>\n

Those are accolades bestowed upon Cortez Middle School counselor Carrie Schneider-Lemay, a semifinalist for the 2015 School Counselor of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrie is very passionate about her work and makes all of her decisions based on what is best for students,\u201d said Cortez Middle School Principal Glenn Smith.<\/p>\n

The only West Slope semifinalist out of more than 60 nominees, Schneider-Lemay will be recognized for the professional achievement at a Colorado School Counselors Association\u2019s annual conference next month in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m both honored and thankful for the nomination and the recommendations,\u201d said Schneider-Lemay. \u201cI feel blessed to be working in this amazing community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith added that Schneider-Lemay was a creative and critical leader who was widely respected and trusted by peers and students.<\/p>\n

Jill Carlson, a parent to a former student of Schneider-Lemay\u2019s, praised the counselor, writing in a recommendation letter that her support for students went above and beyond the profession\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrie exemplifies the position, and if I have to express one frustration with her, it\u2019s that she is not going to be working at the high school that my child now attends,\u201d said Carlson.<\/p>\n

Meet the counselor<\/p>\n

A native of Johnsburg, Wis., a rural community between Green Bay and Milwaukee, Schneider-Lemay graduated from the competitive University of Wisconsin-Madison with a master\u2019s degree in school counseling. She and her husband, Aaron, relocated to Cortez in 2009.<\/p>\n

Schneider-Lemay said her own high school guidance counselor, Jane Lefeber, helped motivate her toward the profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe saw the best in me,\u201d said Schneider-Lemay, who is entering her seventh year at Cortez Middle School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember spending time with her, and she would say, \u2018The important thing is to always be yourself, because that\u2019s the best you are,\u2019\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

Lefeber also encouraged Schneider-Lemay to join Kids Teen Institute, a peer mentoring and leadership program. Schneider-Lemay has tried to replicate the program via the Positive Youth Advocates (PYA), a program aimed to inspire local middle school students to recognize their self-worth. The leadership project is a student-led initiative that encourages charitable activities across the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne year, some of the boys in PYA went to visit a local Alzheimer\u2019s patient,\u201d Schneider-Lemay recalled. \u201cShe referred to the boys using her son\u2019s names. They developed an amazing connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the woman passed, Schneider-Lemay said the students were extremely upset, but she reminded them that they had helped to brighten the woman\u2019s life during her final days. At the same time, Schneider-Lemay said she hoped the boys became empowered to make stronger personal choices in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re changing how students view themselves,\u201d said Schneider-Lemay. \u201cWe\u2019re also changing how they see counselors. A lot of time there\u2019s a stigma.\u201d<\/p>\n

A counselor\u2019s duty<\/p>\n

As a counselor, Schneider-Lemay added that her role isn\u2019t to analyze \u201ceverything that is wrong\u201d with a child, but rather empower students to create greater self-esteem.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role is to show students what amazing things they can do,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the lens I see things through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local child activist Chuck McAfee applauded Schneider-LeMay\u2019s perspective, also writing in a recommendation letter for School Counselor of the Year honors that she was an \u201cuntiring advocate\u201d for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrie is committed, she is consistent, and she is effective,\u201d said McAfee.<\/p>\n

In addition to PYA at the middle school, Schneider-Lemay has also been instrumental in instituting district-wide changes. This academic year, Re-1 schools adopted what\u2019s been coined as Social & Emotional Intelligence (SEI). The aim is to build resiliency and positivity via healthy relationships between students and teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids don\u2019t learn from people they don\u2019t like,\u201d said 40-year elementary teacher Rita Piersen in a TED Talk.<\/p>\n

Schneider-Lemay referenced Pierson\u2019s remark to better describe the basic principle of an SEI approach to learning. The initiative, she added, hopes to positively influence the climate and culture of schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a student believes that a teacher is their ally, that they feel like they aren\u2019t being ignored or being treated like they are just a grade, then they are less likely to be bored, unhappy or even angry,\u201d said Schneider-Lemay. \u201cWhen teachers talk to students it\u2019s so important that they use the language, \u2018I care about you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The SEI approach is believed to be a key in helping to stop America\u2019s shrinking educated labor pool. Research shows that students receiving high-quality SEI learning demonstrate better academic performance, motivation to learn, school behavior and attendance.<\/p>\n

On the front lines trying to combat the social ills that come with generational poverty, Schneider-Lemay knows all too well the struggles that this community\u2019s children face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to give students a voice, help them discover their strengths and then connect them with the resources so they can bring out the best in themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

tbaker@the-journal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Schneider-Lemay a semifinalist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[640,21,147,13,93],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-108646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-award-and-prize","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-students"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108646"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=108646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}