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Celebrating Student Support Counselors Week

March 23, 2010 by Hope Pacheco

Like many people who work at YES Prep, I got my start with the organization because I heard great things from a friend who worked there. My first visit lasted only a few hours, but I knew in that short time that there was something special about YES Prep and I wanted to be a part of it. I feel in love with everything about YES Prep, from the unassuming campus (yes, it was that long ago when there was only one campus) to the determined students, and passionate teachers. I read about the history and mission of YES and became even more inspired by the focus on social justice.

I chose to become a social worker to fight for equality and social justice. Later that same year, YES Prep was looking to hire someone to work with “stressed out” students. Initially, I thought, “was working with stressed out students really social justice?” I couldn’t answer the question right away, but I jumped at the chance to work at YES Prep and find my answer. After eight years, I answer Yes! On a daily basis, by advocating on behalf of students and parents, building community partnerships, collaborating with staff to develop positive school culture, supporting and advocating on behalf of the seven other Student Support Counselors across our YES system. Oh, and of course I did and still do work with “stressed out” students. I focus on empowering them to learn the necessary life skills to fight for themselves and their education. It doesn’t just take a village to raise a child, it takes a village to fight for our students. I am so glad I found my village!

Adopt a Longhorn program at YES Prep As I prepared to leave East End for my 3^rd YES maternity leave in December, I took on a project that I was determined to see through the end. To my delight, I was able to see the results of this burnt orange project and then deliver my son 2 days later. All in days work at YES! After about 2 months of coordination and plenty of collaborating, every 10^th grade student in Texas homeroom was sponsored by current UT students and/or UT alum from Austin to Houston. I emailed and called everyone I knew and then emailed and called people who knew people. Each student received a new UT t-shirt and a personalized note encouraging them to focus on getting to college. Some sponsors provided paper and envelopes to encourage the students to write back and ask questions about college and career interests. All of the sponsors were super excited to be able to help provide a spark of inspiration to our students. Our very own YES Prep staff/teachers sponsored students and helped make the project a success (Hope Pacheco-EE, Megan Zimmerhanzel-EE; Janie Causey-EE; Rey Doria-HOT, Jill Willis (and family)-HOT; Jaylee Wells-NC; Marco Estrada-NC; and Eric Rachlin-NC). It may have seemed like only a little bit of inspiration, but sometimes just a spark of inspiration can light a fire of burnt orange!!! Hook’em Horns!!