A guiding light: Counselor helps students achieve goals

By COLLEEN FREYVOGEL
The Tribune-Democrat

March 15, 2006 04:36 pm

— Getting to know each of her students individually was Michele Mattis’ goal.
Mattis, a guidance counselor in the Shanksville-Stonycreek School District, has spent her first year in the district meeting with students and learning about them.
“The students are here – kindergarten through 12th (grade) – in the same building,” she said. “We have a vision of what they are going to be.”
In the elementary school, Mattis reads stories about diversity to teach pupils it is OK to be different.
“(The administrator’s) plan is to become very visible and well-known early on so there is a comfort when things get tough and there is peer pressure as they get older,” Mattis said.
She said having lunch duties, being present in the halls between class changes and going into classrooms helps her to become more visible to her charges.
“They know who I am and that this is a safe place to be,” Mattis said.
In the junior high, she focuses on students’ adjustments and social skills.
“It’s kind of like an old schoolhouse feeling because everyone is here,” Mattis said. “We have really good students with really good morals.”
Tim Kretchman, elementary and high school principal, said Mattis takes a positive approach to her position.
“She holds herself highly accountable for everything that happens in the school,” he said. “Her focus is on the students.”
She helps prepare senior high students for post-graduate studies. About 45 percent of the district’s seniors have attended a four-year college or university, Mattis said.
Jeff Berkey of Indian Lake, a senior, said he has worked closely with Mattis to prepare for college.
“She has been very supportive and very helpful in all of my decisions and application processes for college,” he said. “I’m not real sure where I want to go or what I want to do, so that’s where you really need someone in your life who can advise you and help me make decisions.”
Berkey said Mattis has allowed him freedom to make his own decisions.
“She has gone out of her way to get into the classrooms,” Kretchman said. “She wants the kids to know she is here for them. She gives up her time to be here for the kids.”
Mattis said she and other faculty members understand that students have outside jobs, after-school activities and family dynamics that may affect academics.
“We realize there is a bigger picture,” she said. “It’s amazing to me how students can wear so many different hats and still succeed.”
If a student begins to struggle, Mattis said she works with parents and teachers to help that student achieve.
“Students are looked at as individuals, not just as a group,” she said. “The school faculty sees the bigger picture. We see a broader scope of who they are as individuals.
Mattis also is National Honor Society adviser.
“She is making NHS a lot of fun,” said Allison Zimmerman, a senior, from Indian Lake.
Berkey said Mattis is a good mentor for students.
“She has been a very good leader for our group, and that is very influential for a lot of students,” he said.
John Chaves, a senior from Shanksville, said Mattis has volunteered as senior class adviser.
“This year, we didn’t have an adviser,” he said. “Mattis volunteered to help out. She just came prepared to do anything that was needed to be done for the school and for the senior class.”
Mattis has helped to organize the class song, class motto and even graduation, Chaves said.
“She has a way of helping people bring out their ideas,” he said. “What I like about her the most is that she is always very positive and she is a real motivator,” Chaves said.
Mattis, who is originally from Ligonier, has been a guidance counselor for six years and a family counselor for 15 years. Prior to becoming a school counselor, Mattis was a drug and alcohol, mental health, family and marriage counselor.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and a master’s degree in counseling from California University of Pennsylvania.
She draws on those experiences to help with her current student-oriented position.
In high school, Mattis said a guidance counselor told her she would not make it through college.
“He said, ‘You better master a trade because you’ll never make it through a four-year school,’ ” she said.
Mattis uses that memory to motivate her students.
“We have a lot of goals to make sure our students do well both academically and socially,” she said. “We can’t do that without parental involvement. We see that as a total package.”

Colleen Freyvogel can be reached at 532-5055 or cfreyvogel@tribdem.com.

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