New Staff Supports Students at Wellness Center
Three new counselors work to provide a positive, caring environment.
By Maddie McMahon
Three new counselors work to provide a positive, caring environment.
By Maddie McMahon
With the closing and reopening of the Wellness Center this year, three new counselors, Delaine Segura, Christine Nwachuku, and Nika Woodruff from Almaden Valley Counseling Service joined the staff.
The Wellness Center is open four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, throughout the day. During break and lunch students can visit the Wellness Center without a pass, but during class they are required to get a pass, have it signed by a counselor and must return to class after 20 minutes.
Segura is a student working on a masters degree in social work and currently contracts with AVCS at two different sites, one of which being the Wellness Center on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Wellness Center hasn’t had very many visitors since it’s reopening, but the counselors want students to know that they are back up and running and ready for visitors.
“My goal for students on this campus is to utilize the Wellness Center when they need it, so even if it’s something that maybe they feel is minor and they don’t really need to use the Wellness Center for, it’s always nice to just come in and see if there's anything that can help you in here,” said Segura.
During undergraduate studies, Segura took different paths to find out what she wanted to do with her passion of helping people. After exploring different career choices such as nursing and dental, they eventually ended up in the mental health field.
“I feel like it’s very rewarding, I love helping, I love being an aid, I love being an advocate,” said Segura.
Woodruff has prior experience in mental health services, and previously worked with Pacific Clinics before taking a job with AVCS and joining the Wellness Center staff.
“I worked as a family specialist, which is like a behavioral person that does behavioral interventions with children that are struggling with different various challenges in school,” said Woodruff. “So I was more like a behavioral coach in that role, but I did kind of work as a counselor as well and taught workshops and social skills groups and things like that.”
With many techniques and options to help students, Woodruff's favorite part of the job comes down to just being able to help someone.
“I really like helping people, especially kids and especially you know I could’ve used someone like that in high school. We didn't have a Wellness Center, and our high school counselor was not very good, so I feel like especially now kids really really need all the mental health resources they can get,” said Woodruff.
As a trainee student working on her master’s, Nwachuku has the Wellness Center open on Fridays in hopes to be able to provide support to students and make them feel like they’re not alone.
“I really like helping people, I feel like our society we don’t always have the time to just hear or just listen to others and you know we really live in a very broken world and I just want to be there for someone to let them feel heard,” said Nwachuku.
The Wellness Center is open four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, throughout the day. During break and lunch students can visit the Wellness Center without a pass, but during class they are required to get a pass, have it signed by a counselor and must return to class after 20 minutes.
Segura is a student working on a masters degree in social work and currently contracts with AVCS at two different sites, one of which being the Wellness Center on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Wellness Center hasn’t had very many visitors since it’s reopening, but the counselors want students to know that they are back up and running and ready for visitors.
“My goal for students on this campus is to utilize the Wellness Center when they need it, so even if it’s something that maybe they feel is minor and they don’t really need to use the Wellness Center for, it’s always nice to just come in and see if there's anything that can help you in here,” said Segura.
During undergraduate studies, Segura took different paths to find out what she wanted to do with her passion of helping people. After exploring different career choices such as nursing and dental, they eventually ended up in the mental health field.
“I feel like it’s very rewarding, I love helping, I love being an aid, I love being an advocate,” said Segura.
Woodruff has prior experience in mental health services, and previously worked with Pacific Clinics before taking a job with AVCS and joining the Wellness Center staff.
“I worked as a family specialist, which is like a behavioral person that does behavioral interventions with children that are struggling with different various challenges in school,” said Woodruff. “So I was more like a behavioral coach in that role, but I did kind of work as a counselor as well and taught workshops and social skills groups and things like that.”
With many techniques and options to help students, Woodruff's favorite part of the job comes down to just being able to help someone.
“I really like helping people, especially kids and especially you know I could’ve used someone like that in high school. We didn't have a Wellness Center, and our high school counselor was not very good, so I feel like especially now kids really really need all the mental health resources they can get,” said Woodruff.
As a trainee student working on her master’s, Nwachuku has the Wellness Center open on Fridays in hopes to be able to provide support to students and make them feel like they’re not alone.
“I really like helping people, I feel like our society we don’t always have the time to just hear or just listen to others and you know we really live in a very broken world and I just want to be there for someone to let them feel heard,” said Nwachuku.