New on campus: Counselor Davina Santos joins community

After working in a few different districts, new counselor Davina Santos has finally found a home with Gunn’s counseling program. Santos was intrigued by the amount of counseling and resources available to students, which encouraged her to choose to work at Gunn. “I’ve been in a few different districts and I’ve never seen this level [of student resources],” she said. “I was really curious to see how that benefited students and what that felt like as an employee.”

Her path to becoming a counselor, however, was not easy. “I was told that counseling is not a very stable career because of funding,” she said. “We tend to get laid off.”

While Santos first started out as a teacher, she found herself supporting students in the same way a counselor would. “While I was teaching, I found myself not only teaching all of the standards but also supporting students in [the personal] realm,” she said. “Therefore, I decided to take a chance and go back to school and do counseling.”

Santos knows that the transition to Gunn can be challenging for both herself and the students who are changing counselors, but her plan is to provide as much support and guidance as needed. “This is a very meaningful and rewarding profession for me, so I want to do anything that I can to make students shine,” she said. “That’s why I want to set them up to have the best opportunity. That’s my entire goal and purpose for being here.”