Next Step Magazine Super Counselor Contest — April winners

Super Counselor: Laura J. Miller, director of college guidance for North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck, N.Y.

Nominator: Student Allie Rubin

“When I walked into Ms. Miller’s College Guidance Office almost one year ago, I had no idea that my passions, interests and pleasures could so easily become a reality,” says Allie Rubin, a student at North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck, N.Y. “Ms. Miller did; she not only realized my potential to take the leadership skills I already possess and put them into practice, but also inspired in me the confidence to do what I was always meant to do—advocate!”

Laura J. Miller is being recognized as a Next Step Magazine Super Counselor, for which students nominate their counselors for recognition.

It’s helping students like Allie that make Miller enjoy her job.

The best part, Miller says, is the ability “to light that fire that every young man and young woman has, so that they walk out and feel like they can take on the world.”

“No matter the student, no matter the college, no matter the problem,” Allie says, “Ms. Miller is always there for whomever requires her attention. Ms. Miller is an integral and irreplaceable part of my high school—truly the binding that holds the entire book in place.”

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Super Counselor: Vera Jones, guidance counselor at Overhills High School in Spring Lake, N.C.

Nominator: Student Kaceia Johns

When Kaceia Johns started thinking about planning for college, she was confused and overwhelmed. But then Vera Jones, her school counselor at Overhills High School in Spring Lake, N.C., gave each senior a copy of a senior planning guide that she had created.

“Using the guide also helped me and my parents understand the different ways to help pay for college, like how to look for scholarships and how to apply for financial aid,” Kaceia says. “Without the guide and Mrs. Jones’s help, I would have been completely lost.”

Vera Jones is being recognized as a Next Step Magazine Super Counselor, for which students nominate their counselors for recognition.

Jones always puts her students first—a key factor in her nomination. “Her door is always open to all students, no matter who you are,” Kaceia says. “She challenges us to be the best we can be.”

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Super Counselor: Yolanda Bogan, school counselor at Weequahic High School in Newark, N.J.

Nominator: Student Naomi Adjei

Yolanda Bogan, a school counselor at Weequahic High School in Newark, N.J., is a Next Step Super Counselor because of her work both in school and outside of it.

“I have only been in America for two years, but Mrs. Bogan makes it seem as if I have been here forever,” says student nominator Naomi Adjei. “She calls me frequently to ensure that I am doing very well. She treats me like one of her own children. She accompanies me to events which my father can not attend.”

Bogan is being recognized as a Next Step Magazine Super Counselor, for which students nominate their counselors for recognition.

“I don’t know how I could have completed those stressful applications if Mrs. Bogan had not supported me,” Naomi says. “She even drove to my house to continue working with me on my applications. How many counselors have been to the homes of their students?”

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    To nominate a Super Counselor, visit nextSTEPmag.com/SuperCounselor.