School counselors help LPS students thrive with ABCs of life

February 7, 2025

JoLynn Sturek, McKenzie Potthoff and Tara Claridge are teaching Lincoln Public Schools students the ABCs of academics, behavior and careers every day.
 
The three school counselors are part of a large team of LPS professionals who work with children at elementary, middle and high school buildings. School counselors handle a range of job duties, but many of their tasks fall under the umbrella of academic planning, career exploration and prosocial growth lessons.
 
Potthoff said she and other school counselors enjoy teaching about all three topics. Blending those subjects promotes each student's well-being and creates positive outcomes for their lives.
 
“So many of our conversations encompass all three domains,” Potthoff said. “I feel lucky that I get so much one-on-one time with my students to talk about all three of those things: the social-emotional aspect, the academic planning and the career development.”

One of the cornerstones for school counselors is ensuring students are excelling in all of their classes. Sturek said academic planning is a crucial piece of everyone’s personal puzzle. Having a strong academic resume opens many career doors and can provide students with a large amount of confidence.
 
“It’s really important,” Sturek said. “That’s how they figure out what they’re going to do with their life and what comes next after graduation.”

 
Sturek has been helping sixth graders at Lefler Middle School make successful transitions from their elementary classrooms. She showed them this fall how to use their Google calendars to create task lists and alerts for upcoming tests and assignments. She also shared tips for academic skills like time management, organization, note-taking and test preparation.
 
Sturek, who is in her 30th year in the education field, also uses academic data to guide students. Sixth graders recently finished their winter Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests in math, and she reviewed those results with administrators and academic interventionists. She will then partner with parents, students and teachers to help children who may be struggling.
 
“I think most of the academic planning and interventions that we do, it’s definitely a collaboration between the counseling staff and teachers and administrators and families and students,” Sturek said. “It’s not one person’s responsibility. It’s everybody’s responsibility to make sure that students are working to their potential and doing the things they’re capable of doing.”

 
Sturek will work directly with the same class of Lefler students as they move through seventh and eighth grades. As they approach high school, she reinforces the idea that they can continue to do well in the classroom. They will apply all of the academic strategies that they learned in middle school at the next level of their LPS journeys.
 
“I try to celebrate with them that they’re being successful, and I’ll remind them that, ‘Yes, I knew you could do that,’” Sturek said. “It’s about building their confidence and reminding them that they’re capable of doing great things.”

 
Potthoff said those academic lessons tie in well with the career planning portion of her job. The East High School alum wants every student to build positive career pathways, whether that be through a university, college, military institution or job site.
 
“It’s about connecting school to the world of work and their future and making sure they can go into the world and do what they’re passionate about,” Potthoff said.

 
Potthoff and the other six school counselors at East meet with every senior during the first two months of classes to ask about their career plans. They also handle academic course requests, deliver classroom presentations about careers, arrange college fairs, share information about LPS focus programs and speak with students about dual-enrollment courses.
 
Potthoff said the wide variety of academic selections at LPS gives every Spartan a chance to consider many careers. She helps them navigate their options and how they can best reach their goals.
 
“It’s thinking about the big picture with all of the things that LPS has to offer and thinking about how each student can take advantage of those things,” Potthoff said.

 
Potthoff coordinates the ASVAB career exploration program for East students in grades 10-12 each November. After taking a vocational aptitude test, they learn which careers might fit their skills and interests. She also shares information about jobs, internships and volunteering positions through the Job and Extended Learning Opportunities (JELO) system at school.
 
Many career breakthroughs happen through one-on-one conversations in her office. Potthoff said curiosity and enthusiasm are two of the top traits she wants students to use while investigating future careers.
 
“It’s okay to not know what you want to do, but it’s not okay to not be trying to figure it out and explore, even if you’re just crossing things off your list,” Potthoff said.

 
Claridge teaches those same types of prosocial traits at McPhee Elementary School each day. The ten-year LPS veteran said spending time on prosocial skills at a young age makes a long-term impact on students.
 
“It’s really cool to see that once they hear that language in elementary school and then they hear it again in middle school and high school, it’s kind of a lifelong skill that they’ll have,” Claridge said.

 
Claridge visits every McPhee classroom each month for lessons about topics such as perseverance, sportsmanship, conflict resolution, managing emotions and having a growth mindset. She can return for booster lessons if teachers feel children are struggling with a certain subject.
 
Claridge said encouraging students is a key part of ensuring those messages take root in their lives. She compliments them during one-on-one visits, small-group discussions and larger restorative-circle events. This builds trust and a sense of community at school.

 
“The small victories are things we really celebrate here,” Claridge said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, I noticed that you were having a hard time with that. I’m so glad that you were able to turn that around by yourself.’ That’s pretty cool to see.”
 
Those lessons directly impact the work that middle and high school counselors like Sturek and Potthoff do inside their buildings. Students who learn how to handle adversity, work hard, be flexible and have constructive conversations with others are well-positioned to earn good grades. As they grow older, those same skills will benefit them as they explore careers and enter the workforce.

 
Claridge said she and other school counselors want to give students the tools they need to master the ABCs of life.
 
“We have such incredible kids in LPS and here at McPhee,” Claridge said. “I think the more that we can guide them, the more likely it is that they’re going to be independent, awesome adults. I think that’s our goal here.”

Visit home.lps.org/counseling to learn more about the many ways school counselors are helping students throughout LPS. The website also contains a directory of LPS school counselors and links to state and national resources.

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