Fluvanna County students typically don’t know what a counselor does on a day-to-day basis, but Samantha Lewis, one of several Guidance counselors at Fluvanna County High School, knows exactly what she is doing. “I wanted to help people [and] when I was working in the classroom I had a lot of students coming up to me asking for advice,” said Lewis, who started working at FCHS in 1999 as a network administrator in the math lab. In 2007, she became a counselor, and has been working in Guidance the last seven years.

Personal issues are one of the main reasons students visit Lewis’ office. “I honestly think I do help some of them. I can’t say ‘all’ of them, but I have had students come back and say the plans we made [for college and a career] worked,” she said. For seniors, the main purpose for coming to Lewis is for college questions and advice. “Anything from what SAT score they need, to grade point average, to what schools have their major,” Lewis said.

Many students wonder what goes on in the Guidance offices, aside from answering students’ questions. “We do a variety of things. We provide assistance for personal problems and career issues, we sit in on a lot of meetings and boards, and we do the scheduling for the school for classes and what teachers teach what during school,” Lewis said. “My routine changes day to day. It can be anything from college stuff, to checking grades for students, to personal stuff [like] IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meetings and Child Study meetings,” she added.

Lewis has one goal in her job. “My goal is to be as helpful as I can be for the students; it’s always a daily thing to be of assistance to students,” she said. When asked about the best part of her job, Lewis said “Getting to see success with the student in what they wanted to accomplish, when the student is pleased with themselves and the parents are pleased, and the school is running well.”

Parents are a big part of the student’s education, but what are the counselors supposed to do with irate parents? “Listening is always the biggest thing. Most parents that come in upset want to be heard. I think that is the key element: to hear what their concerns are, and then come up with solutions. Usually once they have done that, once they’ve aired their concerns and let it be known, it usually works up,” said Lewis. Being a counselor to the students and parents, in Lewis’ eyes, is much like being a good friend with anyone. Lewis said a good counselor is someone who is “easy to talk to, trustworthy, able to see things from a different perceptive, and hopefully, show a different perspective to the students, parents, and staff.”

In a school like FCHS, understanding individuals are a must within the staff and faculty, and Lewis is always ready to help with any situation, and is ready to answer students’ questions. “There’s never a dull moment because you don’t know who’s going to walk in the door,” said Lewis.

Want to see your FCHS Guidance counselor? To handle the needs of 1,400+ students at FCHS, each of the Guidance counselors is tasked with guiding certain groups of students, mostly divided by grade and alphabetically. To handle the load, students are asked to not just drop in when they want to see their counselor; instead, students should ask their teacher to email their counselor so the counselor can send them a pass at the appropriate time.

The Guidance counselors serve students as follows:

Mary Bright – Grades 11-12; Last names G-M; T-Z,

Samantha Lewis – Grades 11-12; Last names A-F; N-S

Stacy Holland – Grades 9-10; Last names A-J

Robin Lopez – Grades 9-10; Last names K-Z

John Helbert – Grade 8