Oshkosh North High School
No two days are alike for Andrea Holdorf, a school counselor at Oshkosh North High School, which is just how she likes it.
As a counselor, she helps with career and academic planning and social and emotional issues. That second category is where most of her job lies. And with its diverse population — 26 percent are non-white and 20 percent of the students have disabilities — the issues she confronts daily may be a bit different than in other area schools.
“We spend a lot of time working together to not only make sure the students are doing well in their classes, but they’re fed, clothed and have access to laundry,” Holdorf says. “I really pay attention and notice my students. If I see someone coming to school with the same outfit two days in a row, I go and ask if they need to get their clothes cleaned or need access to other clothes.”
When school went virtual, Holdorf’s job got harder. “A lot of my job is catching students on the fly and checking in with them. I have some kids who check in with me every morning to talk about the previous day and due to the pandemic, that was impossible,” she says. “Not everyone had access to the internet, so that was one of our first goals — keeping the students connected.”
“Andrea’s passion for helping all students can be seen in every aspect of her work and within her personal advocacy. She understands that she cannot fix the world, but she continues to make a real impact by helping one student at a time.”
— Cindy Estrup, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
Once connected, she worked with students to ensure they knew where to find assistance, since many received specialized help at school from a paraprofessional or a teacher. “A lot of it then was helping them to find the resources in the community such as food or hooking them up to health care,” Holdorf says.
Since she couldn’t see her students in person, Holdorf would conduct porch check-ins where she would visit students’ houses or offer to drop off food by saying she was in the neighborhood.
Communicating with teens and getting them to open up isn’t easy, but Holdorf says most are looking for that one supportive adult in their lives, and once they realize it is you, “they open up more. I don’t know if it’s hard to get teens to open up, but it’s really hard getting there.”
Holdorf mentors students in small ways daily by asking them about something and then helping them review what they may have done differently in a certain situation, like a fight with a parent. “You help them walk through different situations so they know how to act the next time a problem comes up with a teacher or at home,” she says.
Holdorf views herself as a safe place where students of color, those with disabilities or the LGBT community can come to talk. “It can be really scary for them. They may not be sure of what to do or who to talk with,” she says.
When she started at Oshkosh North seven years ago, Holdorf was selected to lead the Gender Sexuality Alliance. She remembers those meetings were sparsely attended, but as time went on, word spread about the safe place created and that it was a lot of fun.
“It took time to get students to trust … and to help them feel comfortable and be themselves in a world where not everybody supports who they are,” she says.
“One thing I love about my job is watching the changes from when they walked in the door until they walk out of there. There are some pretty big changes in those four years.”
