Virginia-raised guidance counselor, Kendra M. Lane is one of the fresh new faces at Midwood. In a school of over 4,000 students she’d like to meet every single one of them.
    Ms. Lane has the soul of a teenager. She is dedicated to her work, yet she still finds time to keep up with her social life. She loves reading, playing soccer, hanging out with her friends, traveling, watching movies, trying new things, and listening to music. She’ll listen to everything, but she likes alternative rock the most.
    She mentioned, “Favorites are Incubus, Foo Fighters, Death Cab for Cutie, Coheed & Cambria, Anberlin, The Shins, Carolina Liar….and the list goes on.” She knows some Chinese, “although it’s very rusty after ten years” and some Spanish. She has visited Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Grand Cayman Island, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and China.
    Ms. Lane attended Chantilly High School in Fairfax County, VA. She described her time in high school as “a time where I really grew up as a person and developed my own sense of self.”
    Like Midwood, Chantilly High School was also a big school. “I had the opportunity to be involved with the drama department, the It’s Academic Team, the student government, a community service program called Interact,“ said Ms. Lane, “and I even played powder-puff football.”
    Powder-puff football is girls’ flag football. Her school had a tradition where the junior girls played against the senior girls in a game of flag football during Homecoming week. “The boys dressed up as our cheerleaders,” she said. “It was amazing to see the school spirit, and the whole community was involved and would come out for the game.”
    Her favorite class in high school was her AP U.S. History class because her teacher was “simply amazing!” She described her teacher as a teacher who made learning fun, and she also had great classmates. She also enjoyed her AP BC Calculus class.
“I know I sound like a dork, but my mom was actually my teacher,” she said, “and it was the first time that I thoroughly enjoyed and understood math.”
The summer after her sophomore year of college, she went to Shanghai, China. She studied the Chinese language and culture for six weeks at Shanghai University.
“It was unbelievable, and I am so lucky to have been able to spend that time there,” she said regarding her experience in China. Her school had a summer exchange program that allowed her to go. She went with ten other students from her university, along with two other students from Virginia Tech. At Shanghai University, they lived in the international dorm and took classes everyday. “We did have the opportunity to take field trips and explore the city and even surrounding areas, including a lake town called Hangzhou, and we ended our trip with a few days in Beijing,” she explained. “It was absolutely incredible to see things like the Great Wall and the Imperial Palace.”
    After graduating from college she moved to Queens to go to grad school, where she lived for 8 ½ years. She went to Queens College for her Masters degree. Before being one of Midwood’s helpful guidance counselors she was one of Long Island City High School’s guidance counselors for six years.
“There’s no subject that I liked enough to want to teach, so I looked into guidance,” she said. “It’s the perfect fit for me. I love my job!” She likes high school age students because she feels that she can relate the best to those ages, “with the exception of maybe college age.”
She feels that she can spread her love for high school to her students. “You can talk to teenagers as adults, and you don’t need to treat them like babies or handle them with white gloves,” she added. “Plus, it’s a fun age. I feel as if they keep me young.”
     Interacting with students on a daily basis and having the opportunity to impact their lives in some way is something Ms. Lane loves.
 “Every day is a new adventure, and I’m never sure what to expect.” It’s hard for her sometimes to see what her students have to live through and some of the problems that they have had. At the previous high school where she worked, she said that she was frustrated with the lack of parent involvement, and even with the student’s level of interest in their own education.
        “It was sad for me to know that there really wasn’t much that I could do to change their way of thinking or encourage them to want something better for themselves,” she said.
        School budget cuts caused the previous high school that she was working at to dismiss part of the staff. Ms. Lane along with several other teachers and counselors had to start looking for another school to work in.
“I was sad to leave my old school. I had good working relationships with my peers and good relationships with my students,” she explained. “But I am excited to be here, and so far I am loving it!”
Some people assume that Guidance counselors simply sit at a desk all day and do nothing, but these people are misinformed. They are a student’s advocates and their actions are in the best interest of their students.
 She helps students communicate with teachers and also with their parents. A guidance counselor keeps the parents informed about students’ grades and attendance, so that both the guidance counselor and parent can help the students stay on track. They work with the deans to help students who are struggling with behavior issues. Ms. Lane also added that if a student is experiencing social-emotional or behavioral issues, she’s available for them to speak to, and many times she will refer them to an outside agency for counseling or assistance.
She deals with issues such as “child abuse and neglect, suicide, grief, bereavement, pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, and teen problems in general.” She spends a lot of time analyzing data, particularly grades and attendance, to find out where students need the most help.