April 22, 2015

Laguna Beach High School

625 Park Ave
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Dear Hiring Committee,
A professor once told me, To know, is to care, is to be responsible for. Over the last two years, I have
become adept in the wide array of challenges facing students today. Becoming progressively more aware of
their needs has increased my passion for helping students and has made me eager to begin my professional
journey toward improving student outcomes. I would be honored to be considered for the position of a school
counselor at Laguna Beach High School and apply my knowledge, care, and innate responsibility toward
supporting your student body.
During my second year as a Masters student, I completed over 500 hours at Westview High School, an upper
middle class school where over 70% of their students attend a four year university. While collaborating with
counselors, staff, and the other interns I coordinated, created, and implemented a guidance lesson on
Naviance to all 9th grade students. This lesson helped students connect their personality (including strengths
and blind-spots) to create future goals and independent choices, begin drafting four year action plans, as well
as provided grade level appropriate college preparation activities all of which align with the counseling
commitment of Laguna Beach High School. Though this is just one example, I believe my wealth
experiences at Westview fully equipped me to guide and counsel students under the academic and college
and career domains of school counseling.
As a school counseling trainee I have found my work most fulfilling when helping students overcome their
obstacles to academic success. Last year, after analyzing data on students with multiple Ds & Fs, I held
individual academic counseling sessions to identify the students individual needs. Through my counseling
sessions I discovered some students were lacking the fundamental study and organizational skills required to
be successful in their courses. For these students I created and facilitated a six week study-skills group. Other
students had the study skills, but were struggling to understand the material. I guided these students through
multiple options of free tutoring services available and helped them decide what the most suitable option
would be for the subjects they found to be most difficult. After assessing the students needs and placing
them in groups or tutoring services, there were some students who continued to struggle in their classes. For
these students I spoke with teachers and parents to collaboratively identify the key areas of development and
to implement interventions, at school and home, in order to develop the students needed areas of growth.
These are just a few examples of the impactful work Ive done to improve academic achievement, and that I
would like to contribute to your students and counseling team.
I am devoted to motivating students to improve their lives, while providing support for them to reach their
greatest personal and academic potential. I would be honored to apply my passion, knowledge, and
experience to support the students at Laguna Beach High School. I have included my resume and all of the
documents requested for this application. Please feel free to contact me to speak further or if you have any
additional questions. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Katherine Ramirez