LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Olivia Carter was nominated by her colleague, Dr. Sharon Sevier.

Ms. Carter is the epitome of an education professional whose dedication and drive have produced results that truly demonstrate that she is a LifeChanger. Many people have raved about Ms. Carter, her passion for school counseling, and the incredible work she does with and for the students at Jefferson Elementary School in the Cape Girardeau School District.

Ms. Carter's school counseling program is modeled on the national model of the American School Counselor Association. Her mission and vision statements frame her program. She uses data to set the goals for her program each year. She shares those goals with her school counseling advisory council and solicits their input. The issues of behavior and discipline referrals framed Ms. Carter's program goals last year. A specific cohort of students accounted for 45% of the 125 discipline referrals in the school. Ms. Carter set the goal of reducing that number by 5%, and she went to work. Using a multi-tiered system of support, she worked closely with her administration and teachers to provide various interventions for these students. Her second goal was similar: a particular group of students had one or two behavior infractions. Ms. Carter was determined that, for those students, no increase in behavior infractions would occur.

Ms. Carter prioritized building relationships with these groups of children. She made it a personal goal to have every student feel loved and safe at school. Her devotion paid off. Instead of a 5% reduction in behavior issues for the first group, there was a 38% drop. For her second goal, 11 of those 14 children had zero behavior infractions.

Over the summer, the school formed a trauma team, and the administrators asked Ms. Carter to lead the charge. The team wanted to move forward in several ways, such as requiring daily class meetings in every classroom, allowing students to find ways to regulate in their classroom, and creating a schedule for teachers that was conducive to helping them regulate throughout the day. Each week, the school celebrates Trauma-Informed Tuesday. Ms. Carter sends relevant trauma and self-care information to the staff. The Trauma Team makes themselves available to other teachers for specific issues with students to create a holistic, trauma-informed approach. Within classroom counseling, Ms. Carter focused a lot of energy on helping all students understand their trauma-reminders and try out relevant coping skills. These skills fit into Jefferson Elementary’s school counseling program well because they go hand-in-hand with American School Counselor Association's mindsets and behaviors, as well as Missouri's grade level expectations around coping skills.

The cultural shift in the building toward all students feeling loved and respected, as well as teachers' time being respected and valued, is palpable. Families, community members, and students feel more welcome at school. Attendance rates are well-above 90%, and staff retention is excellent.

A colleague wrote that, in her 24 years in education, she had never been more impressed with a school counselor than she was with Ms. Carter. She summed it up beautifully in this way: "Creating and building trust, chipping away at hurts and heartaches, inspiring and uplifting, Olivia pieces together an environment for our students that surrounds them like a comfortable old quilt."

Ms. Carter was recently notified that she has been selected by the American School Counselor Association as its National School Counselor of the Year.  This honor is well-earned and well-deserved; she is an outstanding leader and role model for all who meet her.