Welcoming Our Newly Wellness Counselor to GV

Katerine Orellana is Golden Valley’s new wellness counselor at the Growl Center. She was hired in the beginning of September on a mission to help all students in any way she can. Ms. Orellana enjoys working with students, and she is grateful to have an open and creative space to pursue her passion.

Ms. Orellana likes to embrace self-care by going to the gym and hiking. It lets her take out all the emotions she might be feeling at those times.

She mentions,“They’re things that bring me joy, as counselors we preach self-care, so it’s not directly aligned to my job but it is something we strongly encourage everyone to do.” 

When Orellana was younger she wanted to pursue a lot of different careers. She said,“it took a bit of exploration to find out what I really wanted to be.”

She said,“I enjoy supporting others, especially students.” She believes venturing in college was where she discovered her passion to help students, where she can help them reach their personal, and academic goals. 

Orellana’s job is aligned with getting to know more about students, and helping them in the best way possible. She is now teaching peer counseling to students, she mentions,“I never pictured myself being a teacher, or having that as one of my duties.” 

She now has been able to co-teach the peer counseling class, a program called Oso, which stands for On Site Opportunity. There have been a lot of changes with what they do with the program but it is an extracurricular that helps students get on track for credit recovery.

As it is her job to be involved with students, she says,“For some students it can be a little awkward for them to see or talk to me. But they do slowly start to open up, for other students they are more on the extrovertive side and ask questions to get to know me.” 

Although it takes time for students to open up, Orellana likes to meet new students and ask them questions to get a better understanding of them. When she is helping a student in the Growl Center, she enjoys helping them with their personal problems, likes being attuned with the students, and what they’re going through.

Helping students maneuver through issues or challenges they face leaves an impact on Orellana. This is where the self-care portion comes through. She makes sure she takes care of herself because it is very important, “I make sure I don’t take it home with me and don’t let it impact me on how I show up to work, especially when talking to students.” 

Ms. Dyer, a previous counselor in the Growl Center, has moved upstairs on campus as an academic counselor. She moved upstairs this year on Monday, September 4th. Orellana was also presented with this opportunity. But after an explanation of the job, she made the decision to be a part of the Growl Center. Although Orellana didn’t choose to be a part of the counselors upstairs, it is one of her goals to work with the counselors on different initiatives that best help students here at Golden Valley High School.