Jami Weston – Teachers transition to counselors

Jami Weston worked as a fourth and fifth grade teacher for 15 years before transitioning to counseling at Maize South Elementary School. One of Weston’s friends became a counselor and encouraged her to also become a counselor.

“She kept talking to me about it and I thought you know what, maybe I am ready for a change,” Weston said. Weston still gets to work in the classroom doing lessons once a month. She explained teaching took up all of her time and the workload for being a teacher was a lot: going to school early, staying late, taking papers home, and lesson planning.

Now being a counselor she doesn’t have to do that paperwork, but she notices she carries more emotional weight of the problems the kids and even adults go through.

In the end Weston wouldn’t want to have it any other way. “Loving the ones that need the extra love, that comes easy to me,” Weston said.