School Counselor Summer Adventures!

After a busy first week, the school counselors are starting to get into our regular routines.  We have already met with many new students and gotten reacquainted with some upperclassmen, but there are still a lot of students we haven’t yet had the chance to catch up with.  For those of you who haven’t met your counselor or haven't seen her yet this year, I thought I’d do some quick introductions by way of recapping our summers.  

 

 

I’ll start with Mrs. Towne, who most of you knew last year as Ms. McNamara.  Yup, you guessed it - Mrs. Towne got married in June!  After school ended, she went on her honeymoon with her husband.  They went to Jamaica for a week where they enjoyed lots of sunshine and white sandy beaches.  Mrs. Towne also spent time with her two-year-old niece, and went to a couple of Red Sox games with her family.  She is relaxed and excited for a new school year!

Ms. Larracey also did some traveling this summer.  She was pretty much all over the Southeastern US with the baptism of her 7th granddaughter in Atlanta, the 4th of July in Williamsburg, and a trip to Tennessee.  In Chattanooga Ms. Larracey explored an underground waterfall at Lookout Mountain.  Back in New England, Ms. Larracey went to Maine with her family where they stayed in a cottage on Great Pond and did a lot of swimming, boating, kayaking, canoeing, and hiking.

 

 

Ms. Fagan started her summer off with some professional development by taking an awesome course in Positive Psychology.  She also spent a lot of time out in the wilderness hiking.  Ms. Fagan climbed three 4,000ft peaks in the White Mountains and went remote camping at Lake Umbagog in New Hampshire.  There was lovely weather and beautiful sunsets throughout her camping trip, but the best part was the technology-free quality time she spent with her family.  

 

 

 

 

We have a new face in the School Counseling Center this year and that is Ms. Pittsley.  Ms. Pittsley is our School Adjustment Counseling Intern this year as she begins her Masters program at Simmons.  After her graduation from Emmanuel College in May, Ms. Pittsley went on some great vacations.  She went to Florida twice this summer, once to visit family in Boynton Beach and once to go to Disney World.  In August, Ms. Pittlsey went on a 10 day, 16 state road trip.  Her favorite cities were Chicago and Washington DC. Later in August, she went on a camping trip in North Conway, NH where the resident bear took a walk through her campsite one night, leaving some gigantic tracks right next to her tent!  She is excited to start her year with us at Nipmuc!

I guess summer really is the time to travel because, like my fellow counselors, I did some traveling of my own!  My husband graduated from business school in July and to celebrate, we went on a trip to Iceland and Ireland.  In Iceland we had great food, saw lots of waterfalls, got sprayed by a huge geyser, and swam in a natural hot spring called the Blue Lagoon.  In Ireland we drove along the southern coast and stopped in cities like Kilkenny, Kinsale, Cork, Killarney, and Dingle before heading back to Dublin for a night.  All that driving on the “wrong” side of the road made for quite the adventure!  For the rest of the summer I spent a lot of time with family and friends, did some home improvement projects, and relaxed, relaxed, relaxed!

 

We're all well-rested and ready for a great year with you.  Please feel free to come see your counselor in the SCC whenever you’d like!  Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter @NipmucSCC for important School Counseling Center information and updates!