I have worked as a Behavioral Health Technician and a Truancy Mentor because I believe that a quality education is key to every student’s success. As a Behavioral Health Technician, I was able to work with a close team to provide support to students who have experienced issues with aggression/property damage, attention deficit issues as well as learning disabilities to ensure that these shortcomings did not hinder the student in the classroom. I firmly believe that a student should not be limited by a shortcoming, which is why I work to empower students. Embracing these shortcomings and challenging the student to work through these problems will help ensure future success. I do what I do to ensure no student feels as those a problem will determine how successful they can be later on in life. As a Truancy Mentor, I have worked with families and schools to ensure students who have been identified as being a high-risk of dropping out of school can re-engage with their school. Often times these students feel isolated or that the school does not meet their needs. Reducing absenteeism is my main focus and once the student is attending school at a higher rate, I will work on tutoring the student and connecting them with school and community resources to ensure the student surrounds themselves with positive influences.I do this line of work because there were not as many programs like this when I was in school, and I know that I could have used some extra guidance when I was younger. I try to help as many individuals as possible, so they do not have the same feeling of wishing there was more help like I did. Everyone needs a helping hand from time to time and I feel very fortunate that I have been put in a position to be able to do this.
