Becoming an educator was my first choice of career. I went as far as to spend the first two years of my schooling studying to become a teacher. As a first-year student, I studied Elementary Education. A year later I changed my major to Middle Level education, but something still wasn't quite right. I knew I wanted to work with students, but I did not like the occupation I chose. I wanted to stay in a school because I felt a school is the best place to make a difference in a child's life. I originally chose to teach because a select few teachers were the ones that helped me growing up, but I was starting to realize that teaching was not what I wanted to do. I was sitting with my placement teacher during observations in a middle school math classroom during my junior year of my bachelor's degree, and that is when I realized what I wanted to do. I was very honest with my placement teacher that I was not sure if I wanted to teach. I was actually dreading student teaching. We had a conversation about what I wanted out of my career. I wanted to work with students that were coming from broken homes. Students that feel that life is an obstacle and are becoming enveloped in hopelessness. Students that are in similar situations that I was. She then gave me the idea of becoming a school counselor. She told me a little bit about a school counselor's job and what they do, and that is when I decided that school counseling would be perfect for me. I never thought about potentially becoming a school counselor because I thought of the stereotypical guidance counselor. That was what my counselor was when I was in school. She typically was only around to talk about scheduling, careers after high school, or how to prepare for college. However, I took the information I got from my placement teacher and began talking to professors at the university about school counseling. I found that the profession was drastically different than what I believed it to be. That is partly due to the need rising from the mental health crisis and more awareness of mental health in recent years. School counselors used to fill the stereotypical role I thought them to fill. They were placed in schools to prepare students for further education. This was around the time when wars were occuring and the country needed to push more individuals into the math and science fields. The profession has evolved to become more of a mental health professional, as well as a career and academic counselor in the building. After I spoke with many professors and individuals knowledgeable about school counseling, I decided to change my major to Psychology. I wanted to really focus on the mental health aspect of being a school counselor because that was ultimately the population of students I wanted to work with in my career. Even when I was an education major I knew that was the population I wanted to work with as a teacher. I remember writing in every professional development paper I wrote that my priority was the students' mental health. I could not care less if my student remembered that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but I did want every student to walk out of my classroom knowing that at least one adult in the building cared for them. As a psychology major, I took as many classes as possible studying mental health. I specifically wanted to take any classes that focused on children. Many of the classes I took were things like child development, crisis intervention, and any DSM courses available. I only spent two years as a psychology major before graduating. I was happy to have stayed on track despite changing majors so many times, but I wished I could have had more time to take additional psychology courses that I missed out on like helping skills. I began graduate school at the same university I completed my bachelor's degree the fall after I graduated. I have written a lot about my journey to deciding to become a school counselor, but I have only hinted at why I developed a passion to work with students in unfortunate situations to begin with. Long story short, I was one of the kids that I want to work with now. I was a child that was off to a bad start from the very beginning. Unfortunately, I was just born in the situation I was in and that is how life plays out for some people. Some of these students that act up in school are crying out for help and that is why understanding mental health is so important. I was one of the "bad kids" in school. I was always causing trouble. I would yell at my teachers, I would vandalize the classroom, would fight with my peers, both physically and verbally. To put it lightly, I was not a good student and I constantly got in trouble for it. Many teachers saw a child that had no parental guidance and needed to be punished. They were partially correct in that thought process. Behind every action was a child that was struggling to cope with their mental health that was caused by things that were happening at home. Teachers weren't aware that I was acting out because I was hungry because my only meal was the free lunch I got at school, or I was tired because I did not sleep the night prior because I was so scared of my dad or my sister, or that I was angry because my sister sexually abused me, or I was in pain because my dad beat me the day prior because he drank too much and got upset, or that I was jealous of my peers because they had money and I was on the verge of homelessness. None of my teachers knew that I was struggling with mental health. That wasn't until 4th grade when a teacher pulled me aside because I was about to be sent to the office again for wearing jeans that had huge holes in them. I wore these jeans every day to school and my teacher could not understand why I kept wearing them if I got into trouble for it every day so she decided to ask. With tears in my eyes, I yelled at her in frustration. I yelled that they were the only pair a had. That was when the select few teachers I mentioned began to look out for me a little more. However, there was still a dire mental health issue on hand that no one was helping me with. It eventually got to the point where I was contemplating suicide and went as far as developing a plan, but was interrupted so I never went through with it. Suicidal ideations crept up again early in my college career. I battled depression for a very long time. Much of that time was spent doing it alone. I am in a much better place mentally. I believe a large part of that is due to getting out of the situation I was in. My way out was by joining the military which has allowed me to begin pursuing my passion to help other children in dire need of help. I am already doing my best to help make a difference for students, even before I have graduated. I have a job on campus where I work with students in special education, and another job at a local school district where I fill long-term substitute positions also working with students in special education. I have a goal set for myself in my career. When I graduated from my military training, I went back to my school district to thank those select few teachers and tell them how I'm doing now. I had one interaction that stuck with me. My teacher began to cry when she heard how much better I'm doing and how much I'd changed since graduating high school. I told her how grateful I was for everything she did because I was in a really bad place growing up. She told me that she became a teacher to make a difference for kids and that she was so grateful to have one student come back and tell her how much she made a difference for them. That is what I want for my career. I want to be a role model for students that are struggling with mental health. I do not believe I am anything special, but I do believe I have the passion to help children in need, even when no one else will.

I grew up on a farm about 40 minutes away from the school district I attended. I graduated from Everett Area High School in south-central Pennsylvania, though I lived about 5 minutes from the Maryland line in Artemas, Pennsylvania. I grew up playing baseball and football mostly, but I began martial arts and boxing for a time in late middle school to early high school. I joined the Army National Guard when I was 18 to have enough money to live on my own while I went to school, and to receive benefits to help pay for my college. During undergrad, I continued to practice mixed martial arts as a hobby, but other hobbies include playing guitar, reading books, or exercising. I began my bachelor's degree studying to become an elementary school teacher. After one year I changed grade levels to middle-level education with a focus on math and science. After two years of studying to become a teacher, I felt that something in teaching still did not fit. I was more focused on the children's mental health as opposed to their academics. I spoke to my placement teacher at the time, and later to my advisor as well, and they both told me that I should think about school counseling. I wanted to stay in a school because I felt a school is the best place to make an impact on a child, but I wanted to be there in a way that supported their mental health. Mental health is something that is of great importance to me, especially in children, because I know as a child I needed help. I grew up in an unfortunate environment where we lived below the poverty line and I had repeated experiences of abuse. That abuse coming in all shapes and sizes including sexual, emotional, and physical. I am at peace with my childhood, but I remember it because that is what drives me to help children in need. I chose to be a school counselor so I can hopefully be a role model for the children that are experiencing traumas, whether that is divorced parents, abuse, or poverty. I firmly believe that just because you have been dealt a bad hand in life, that does not mean you do not deserve a chance. I hope to empower children coming from unfortunate backgrounds and give them hope that there is a better life ahead of them.

I am currently in graduate school to become a school counselor. I originally wanted to become a teacher because I had a select few teachers keep me on the right track growing up. I grew up in a poor farming family, at one point homeless, and experienced my fair share of physical, sexual, and emotional/verbal abuse. My mental health was at a low point in my childhood. Suicide was something that was heavily on my mind during high school and all the way until my junior year of college. I did go as far as setting up a plan but was prevented from following through within my senior year of high school. I don't tell that story because I want pity or for people to feel bad for me. I tell that story so people know that I am very passionate about mental health. I was once one of those kids, even one of those young adults that felt they had no way out at one point. I joined the military to have enough income to live independently and pay for my schooling with the end goal in mind of becoming a counselor. I moved away from a teaching degree to pursue psychology to finish my undergraduate degree and took as many classes related to crisis intervention as I possibly could. I wanted to gain as much knowledge related to mental health before moving into a master's program. I still felt working in a school would put me in the best position possible to help children that are coming from less than ideal home lives. I'm very passionate about children's mental health so I hope to find a school that is just as focused on a child's well-being than they are their academics. If I can have at least one child come back to me and say, "Mr. Perrin, you really changed my life," then I will happily say my career was a success. My experience involving mental health only goes as far as working on my degrees to this point. Though, I do work a job on campus working with students in special education as a classroom aide. These classes largely involve life skills and emotional regulation. The adjunct professor has been so impressed with me that she has asked me to consider working as an emotional support teacher at the local high school. I am still considering it, but in the meantime, I have been hired at that school district to be a substitute special education paraprofessional where I do almost the same job I do on campus, but at a school district.

Mental health encompasses my life on both a personal and professional level. I began my undergraduate program to become a teacher not because I loved teaching, but because I believed teaching would put me in the best position possible to support children that are coming from broken homes. Teachers were the ones that helped me overcome a lot of challenges I had regarding my mental health and my home life. I was once one of those children and I've been working to put myself in the position to help others that may not have the same kind of hope I do now. I eventually changed to psychology to finish my undergraduate program because I prioritized children's mental health over teaching them mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. That move was recommended to me by the placement teacher I was with at the time and my advisor. I believe it was the right move looking back on it. Currently, I am in graduate school to study school counseling. I still felt working in a school would put me in the best position possible to help children struggling with their mental health. I just switched career paths. Mental health is something that I have learned is a priority in taking care of myself and has shaped my desire in my entire career path. Self-care has come to be one of my top priorities in my life. I argue that self-care is just as important as therapy because, at the end of the day, you're always going to have yourself. Therapy may not always be an option, so you'll need to rely on yourself at some point. One of the main goals of therapy is to teach independence and allow autonomy in regards to mental health. I balance three graduate classes, with a graduate assistantship, a part-time job working with special education students on campus, was just now hired as a special education paraprofessional at a local school district, and serve in the Army National Guard. I am balancing a lot of things so time management is something I have to have to maintain my mental health. Something that goes along with that is setting boundaries. I can balance all these things logistically, but I have to know when to say no. Nothing is wrong with keeping yourself busy, but I take pride in allowing myself to be busy and still block time out of my day for myself. I think of this time as a necessity to maintain my sanity with all the chaos in life. I typically fill this time with reading, playing guitar, spending time with my brother or girlfriend, or simply doing anything else that I enjoy. I have learned there is no point in working myself to the bone to accomplish all of these things if I'm unhappy because I'm burnt out.

A man content with his past, living a simple life with his family, and working as a school counselor to give hope to underprivileged children at school.

I began my undergraduate degree as an elementary education major because I wanted to work with students coming from rough home lives. I felt teaching was the field I wanted to pursue because I had an elementary school teacher that brought my home life to the attention of other faculty/staff at the school, and then a select few teachers began to look out for me growing up. I grew up in a very low-income house, at one point homeless, where I was abused sexually, physically, and emotionally in my home. Only a few teachers found out the extent of what was happening at home, but the ones that did, went out of their way to guide me in education. I remember everything came to my teacher's attention when she kept writing me up for wearing the same pants to school. They had holes all throughout them and showed my underwear so they weren't appropriate for school. I wasn't a kid that was able to go and shop at American Eagle or Aeropostle like all the other kids. We wouldn't get clothes often, but when we did we would shop at the Goodwill. There isn't anything wrong with that, but when I was going to school in the same dirty, old clothes all the time it became an issue for my teachers. Finally, she pulled me aside and started talking to me about why I wear those pants if I keep getting in trouble for it. I had tears in my eyes because I didn't know what was wrong. I was angry and confused. Eventually, I snapped and yelled back that they were the only pants I had. She began to realize that my life at home may not have been very happy. I slowly began to open up to very few teachers that I was close with and I had a group of teachers that looked out for me after that. There was never anything expected of me according to my peers. There were jokes going around the school that I would be voted "most likely to grow up in their mom's basement." I was almost beginning to think the same until I had a conversation with two of my teachers, One was my English and the other was my calculus teacher, that maybe I should become a teacher. They've seen me work with kids and felt I was a bright young man. I needed a way to pay for my schooling so I joined the Army National Guard. When I got back from my six months of training, I went back to school to thank some of the teachers that helped me along the way. I got a range of responses. There was one teacher that laughed and told me, "Hunter..bud, I'm sure glad you figured it out because you were a screw up", then another teacher that cried and told me that she became a teacher in hopes that she could change the life of at least one student. I told her that she did mine. I didn't graduate with a teaching degree. I made it to placements working with a teacher, but I was much more focused on students' mental health. My advisor and placement teacher told me that a school counselor would potentially be better for what I want to do with my life. I changed my major to psychology and am now in graduate school for school counseling. Though I didn't get my degree in teaching, I am currently getting paperwork in order to work at a school district part-time as a substitute teacher and special education aid. I've also been working with students in special education as a part-time job on campus and the special education teacher is asking me to change my career path to be an emotional support teacher.