When Ms. Candace Proulx  first considered becoming a teacher, she noticed the struggling students and quickly realized helping them might just be her passion.

“I felt like I really wanted to just connect with those kids one -on -one and being the head of the classroom you can’t really take time to talk individually with all these kids,” said Proulx.

Proulx of Pine Grove School shared her story of going from aspiring teacher to the position she holds now: school adjustment counselor. In a recent interview, Proulx shared her reasons behind this career change, how she helps her students, and a little bit about her past leading up to this point.

Twenty-five-year-old Proulx originally graduated frp, Northern Essex Community College to become a teacher. She realized that when she was working in classrooms with troubled children, she felt that she wanted to focus on helping these kids one-on-one. She then transferred to Merrimac College and got a masters degree in school counseling.

 Proulx is in her second year of school counseling and in her first year of working in the REACH program, a special program in Triton Schools dedicated to help students with social and emotional difficulties.

“This is my second year as a school counselor, my first year in a REACH program,” she said.

 At the beginning of her new career, Proulx worked at Methuen High School. There, she worked with the college and career side of things with her students. 

 “I didn’t always work at an elementary school…” Proulx said.  “I really liked helping with the academics and the college and career side.”

 Despite her love for aiding high school students in their careers, Proulx loves helping her students who are going through a tough time emotionally.

“My favorite parts are definitely being able to help the kids when they’re having escalated feelings,” Proulx said. 

 Students will typically head straight to her room when they are struggling.

“So we have a couple students that have a lot of elevated symptoms of anxiety,” Proulx said. “They’ll leave class, they come down to this reach room that we have, they’ll get a little breakdown there and then they can come check in with me… My goal is to get them back to class and feel stable and help them talk through some things and learn about their emotions,” Proulx said.

 Proulx will go about her day running counseling sessions, doing one-on-ones with students, organizing plans and activities to help students. 

 “I do multiple one on one sessions with students,” Proulx said. “I run two counseling groups as well. Before a group or one on one I organize what activities I want to do and plan a schedule or objective before meeting with the students.”.

 Proulx will help build student relationships by interacting with the student body during social times

“I also attend recess and lunches my students are in to help build relationships,” Proulx said.