Allyson Dexter Supports Students And Bonds With Staff
Allyson Dexter is valued immensely across MBHS’ campus. She often works alongside school counselor Elena Smith, and they have a close, humorous, and positive colleague relationship. Day to day, Dexter meets with students individually, sometimes with families, and other times just with school staff.
She provides students and families with support regarding grades, classes, personal matters, college and career plans, as well as resources for families in need. She has approximately 400 students on her caseload every year, so while she tries to know each student well, sometimes there are students who she sees more often than others or students who only see her for their annual check-ins.
While mental-emotional health is still part of her position, she sees less students for those matters than academics because there’s now a designated place on campus for students to take those issues (The Rock Wellness Center). However, Dexter said,
“I like being in the loop on what’s going on with my students so that I can help support them. Students are not just their grades or their schedule, you know, they’re the whole person.”
It’s common to see Dexter taking a more holistic approach as a counselor to her students and as a staff member on campus. In college, she majored in human development and minored in psychology, giving her a strong understanding of how students’ brains are developing and what is truly important when working with them. It’s also notable that this is Dexter’s 19th year working with high schoolers, so a large piece of her success with students is her experience.
Her first position working with high school students was at Crest Canyon Academy (CCA) in San Diego, CA, which, at the time, only had a freshman and sophomore class. Dexter was hired as their second counselor, and had the opportunity to make decisions for the new and developing school. CCA is an arts focused school, with high performing students academically. Dexter shared that when she worked for the school, she’d be writing over 100 letters of recommendation to just Ivy League schools, during college application season.
Dexter notices a difference in culture between CCA and MBHS, as well as what it means to be a counselor at the schools. Dexter said, “Here, there’s more room to make a difference, and I feel like the families here really appreciate the outreach and support.” She made it clear that just because students at CCA had ample opportunities, they were not without their high school issues.
While Dexter notices the differences she can make on MBHS’ campus, her peers notice her ability to do so as well. Smith said, “She’s really smart, one of the things I love about her is that she thinks outside of the box.” Similarly, MBHS principal Scott Schalde said, “She has the ability to see and ask questions with a conscious curiosity.”
Absolutely, a positive professional relationship is important, but Dexter and her colleagues have a deeper connection than that. Smith spoke extremely highly of her and said,
“She’s a great listener, she has a great sense of humor, she has a deep understanding of understanding, of knowing, and how to communicate with young people… She’s just the most amazing co-worker I’ve ever had to work with.”
Dexter is a valuable asset to MBHS, with her kindness, understanding, and proactive nature. She has faith in the students and staff here and trusts that everyone can do the right thing and said, “I think we all have really good intuition.” Dexter wanted to leave the students of MBHS with a piece of advice, “I think it’s really important for students to find a way to tune out all the outside noise and really try to be guided by what, for them, feels right.”