Whether it’s changing class schedules or helping with mental health, the counseling department is an integral part of University High School. Made up of counselors, mental health specialists and more, department members come from a variety of unique backgrounds and work hard to make sure that the school can run smoothly. The counseling department also provides resources to students to help them academically and with mental health.

“As a school counselor, we work with students in three domains: academic, college and career and personal or social,” counselor Angelique Strausheim said.

Academics encompass things like classes and grades during the school year, such as creating and changing class schedules. In addition to this, they also manage students’ grades and transcripts during the year and can help organize peer tutoring for students who need it. Contrastingly, the college and career aspect of what the counselors do is tied to making plans for the future. Felicia Rohrer Ng is the College and Career Coordinator at UHS.

“I help students with college applications, community service opportunities, scholarships, resumes, summer programs and more,” Rohrer Ng said. “I also serve as the AP Coordinator and work to ensure more than 3,000 AP tests are administered each year.”

Both the counselors and Rohrer Ng work hard to help students with their lives after graduation, often working closely together with students.

“We work very closely with Ms. Rohrer Ng and she has a ton of information about financial aid,” counselor Hanna Addessi said. “She’s the one who sets up the college visits, so if you’re interested in learning more about a particular college, she can assist with that, and we can provide you with that information as well.”

The personal and social side of what the counseling department does has to do with students’ mental health. If students need therapy, the counseling department can find therapists through several services and organizations.

“We work closely with Care Solace, which is a concierge-type service,” mental health specialist Jennifer Butler said. “They’re kind of the middleman that finds students and their families therapy and therapists.”

In addition to Care Solace, the counseling department also works with Irvine Family Counseling Center (IFCC), the Irvine Police Department (IPD), and Irvine Unified School District (IUSD), which provides workshops for students and their families.

“Any time a student’s like, ‘Hey, I need this. I don’t know where to go,’ they can come to me or Dr. Tohidian, and we’ll give them the appropriate resources to go to,” Butler said.

Academic or personal resources given by the counseling department can be accessed throughout the day, such as during breaks, Office Hours, before and after school and during open periods. The counselors can be found at the counseling office on campus, with the mental health specialists having offices at the front office. Depending on the time of year, the focus of what counselors do can vary significantly.

“The fall revolves around schedule changes, registering new students and helping seniors through the college application process,” counselor Nate Schoch said. “In winter and spring, we are busy with sophomore conferences, junior meetings and helping students complete their course selections for the coming school year.”

The members of the counseling department come from a wide range of backgrounds and have done a variety of things before coming to UHS.

“I was interested in psychology while I was in high school,” Strausheim said. “I received my BA in psychology and then decided to pursue a master’s degree in school counseling.  I worked at two other middle schools and another high school before coming to UHS.”

Addessi also pursued becoming a school counselor, as she wanted to help students with their academic lives and career goals.

“I went to California State University Long Beach for my bachelor’s degree,” Addessi said. “We had to do a project where we had to talk about what our goals were after we received our bachelor’s degree, and that’s when I learned about the role of a high school counselor because I liked the mix of the mental health, but also helping students pursue their goals, academics, college and careers.”

Addessi also went to Chapman University for graduate school and was an elementary school counselor for a year before coming to UHS. Shannon Dean, another counselor who has been at UHS for four years got a bachelor’s degree in business management before obtaining a master’s degree in school counseling.

“When I found the job posting, I knew it would be a great way to provide some additional support to students,” Dean said. “After that, once I graduated with my master’s, a school counseling position opened up, and I was eager to interview for it and excited to have the opportunity to stay and work with the students here at UNI.”

Not all of the counseling department’s members had majors related to school counseling. Schoch initially wanted to become an English teacher and worked as a teacher for nine years.

“I am happy I did that, and I enjoyed the role of teacher, but after several years I became interested in helping students in different ways, and school counseling appealed to me in that way,” Schoch said. “I came to UNI from a school just outside Minneapolis, MN, where I was a school counselor.”

The 2023-2024 school year introduced two new members to the counseling department at UHS. One of the counselors was Joyce Chung, who previously attended UHS as a student. Chung worked as a tour manager for K-pop groups before coming to UHS. In addition to this, she initially pursued becoming a nurse before changing her focus to mental health and counseling.

“While participating in a nursing program in college, I realized I was more interested in mental health than physical health, which led me to pursue a career in school counseling instead,” Chung said.

The other new staff member is Mrs. Butler, who is one of the two mental health specialists at UHS. Butler is a licensed clinical social worker who, before coming to UHS, worked under Student Health Services at Norco College and as a therapist and case manager at the Jewish Family Children’s Services in Long Beach, CA, to provide mental health support to Holocaust survivors.

“I worked mainly at Norco College with transitional age youth, which was roughly about kids between 17 to 24-ish,” Butler said. “And so I wanted to change and be able to provide the same kind of care and resources and mental health needs to a younger, K-12 setting.”

The counseling department has resources available to students who need both mental health and academic support with members who have a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. The counselors do a lot to make sure that UHS can function, and it’s important to appreciate the work that they do to make sure UHS students are welcomed on campus.

“Who you are as a person and your worth is more than just one thing, it’s more than a grade,” Addessi said. “It’s more than where you get into college . . . Student self-worth comes from within. And I just want students to know that they’re enough, they’re doing enough.”