College counselor awarded Nebraska Counselor of the Year

After working in Omaha Public Schools for 27 years, Angie Meyer was selected to be the Nebraska High School Counselor of the Year. Meyer was one of three winners out of many counselors in elementary, middle and high school to be nominated. Seniors and juniors have the option to receive guidance from Meyer when applying to colleges and finding scholarship opportunities. “The best part of my job is working with students,” Meyer claims, “especially in May when they find out where they’re going and they’ve made all their decisions and their journey throughout the college application process has changed. That’s a fun time of the year.”  

Before her career as a counselor, Meyer worked as a math teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School for nine years, followed by three years working as a math teacher at Central. Once Meyer decided that she wanted to become a counselor, she went back to school to get her counseling degree. She made the transition from teacher to counselor quite smoothly stating, “Both [teaching and counseling] are jobs that help students, they just help in different ways.” 

Students’ plans for their futures, as well as her fellow staff members in the counseling department and around the school, keep Meyer motivated. She welcomes any student who needs help and enjoys helping students and their families. Regarding school improvement, Meyer remarks, “We have a really strong improvement plan, so I would say we just need to follow that plan and get students more active in the community.” 

When entering the stage of life that comes after high school, Meyer believes that it is important for students to begin taking on more responsibility. From learning basic things, like how to do laundry, to making plans for their futures, students need to become more independent. “There’s not just one recommended path to success,” says Meyer, “We just want you to find your passion and have a plan. We know that things change, this is just your plan for now, but training after high school is very important.” 

Meyer won the Nebraska High School Counselor of the Year and she is still waiting for the Nebraska Counselor of the Year to be announced. In the selection process, one winner is chosen from each of the three categories (elementary, middle, high school). From those three, one person is recognized as the overall Nebraska Counselor of the Year. The overall winner will be recognized and will go to a banquet to honor the Counselors of the Year in  Washington. “I did not think that I was going to win this award,” discloses Meyer, “I actually still don’t know who nominated me for it.”