GROWL Center Ran By New Faces
GROWL Center offers a warm welcome
The GROWL center, previously advised by Mrs. Navia, is going to face some new changes, having new advisors, Mrs. Imai and Mrs. Dyer, causing a change to the loved and comfortable environment for many students. The Growl Center is a safe space for all Golden Valley students; if there ever is a time needed for space, silence or in need for someone to talk to, the GROWL Center is available second, third and fourth period and brunch and lunch. With this new school year beginning, we have two new faces leading the GROWL Center.
The old advisor, Mrs. Navia, left to become a full time counselor. Students were sad to see her go. She commented about the new advisors saying, “I am very happy about it. There are a lot of new energies and new perspectives that I feel like in this program that we need to grow”. With a safe space, there is always room to grow especially with the new emotions all teens are discovering they have.
This is especially unique to Mrs. Dyer who mentioned, “When I was a teenager I needed a lot of support. My counselor helped me a lot when I was in high school”. She then went on to say, “After all that time I realized counseling is what I wanted to do because I realized one person can make a huge impact on somebody’s life and I wanted to do that for somebody else”. It is a safe feeling knowing that there is an adult on campus looking out for all students’ best interest and not helping because they need to but because they strive and are truly motivated and passionate to help with students’ wellness and mental health.
Mrs. Dyer is not alone in her motivation of practicing wellness. Her co-partner, Mrs. Imai, has shared, “I was really interested in the concept of working with the students surrounding their whole wellness; Not just working through social-emotional stuff but also talking about physical wellness, and their overall personal well-being so they can be their best self in class and in life”.
It is safe to say that Mrs. Navia has left the GROWL Center in the hands of two people who can be trusted and nurtured toward all students. This is a new era for the GROWL Center.
Hannah Monet Medellin is a twelfth grade student at Golden Valley High School. She is active in her school by being a staff writer for the new Grizzly Gazette, and a peer counselor at the GROWL center. She began peer counseling in the eleventh grade and has worked her way to the honors peer counseling. Hannah is an avid reader and plant owner. For most of her life she found herself lost in the thoughts of others that shared it through ink on a paper. When she was fourteen she began to fall back into her love for plants and has plans to have her own greenhouse someday.
She has always had a love for reading and writing and can’t wait to participate in reading everyone's articles and sharing her own. Showing the creativity of others is her goal. If there is any short story, poems or art that wants to be submitted she’d love to share it in her articles!