Oxford Hills welcomes three new guidance counselors by Rebekah Fleck and Maria Shively

Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS), welcomes not only one, but three new guidance counselors to the 2013-2014 school year: Kevin O’Reilly, Rachel Paddock, and Stephanie Goss. 

Even though they may be new to OHCHS, counseling is nothing new to them. They each have experience working with students.  

Paddock attended UMaine Farmington where her undergrad was in psychology. She attended got her masters in school counseling at the University of Southern Maine. Says Paddock, “I have always wanted to be a guidance counselor, pretty much since high school.” She enjoys being a guidance counselor because she “likes working with kids and helping them with career development.” Paddock says, “I like working with kids on a short term basis, rather than therapists who have clients for 5 or 6 years.”

Stephanie Goss is the one person out of three who has experience working at OHCHS  Ten years ago she was a guidance counselor at the high school. Before that taught preschool, elementary school, and even was a camp counselor. She worked in Gray, Maine for 7 years as a counselor, and then moved on to Gorham. Goss says, “I really wanted to come back so when the position opened I applied.”

A guidance counselor for 19 years, Kevin O'Reilly graduated from Cape Elizabeth High School. He got his counseling degree from UMaine, but his undergraduate was at UMaine Farmington in Social Studies. He originally wanted to be a Social Studies teacher. O'Reilly says, "Basically I've always wanted to work with kids and I was originally going to be a teacher, but that didn't work out. A family friend suggested counseling, so that's what I got in to. So that's how I started." 

OHCHS is by far the biggest school O'Reilly has worked in. He says, "The other schools I've been in have been very small, so I think the largest school I worked at had about 350 kids. I haven't worked with other counselors in a job before so this is kind of a first.  Other places I've worked at . . . sometimes the environment isn't very friendly, but I find the people here and the kids here are pretty friendly." 

Nancy McClean, who is the head of the Guidance Department, says, "During the hiring process you could see they really wanted to help the students and be a part of the school community."

"I'm excited, Principal Ted Moccia, says, " I think the three new counselors that we have are all extremely talented and are very committed to helping kids. They are knowledgeable, they know their role but they also understand the college process and help kids. It's just a really good group down there right now. They are just awesome and they are doing a great job."

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Replacing three members of a community can be a hard thing to do, but the people who stepped up to take on the responsibility are nothing but eager to follow in the previous counselors’ footsteps.

So perfectly Maine by Jasmine Roy

What do you think of when you hear the word “Maine?” After asking this of several different teachers at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS), we have some results.

Brewster Burns, an English teacher, said the first things that come to mind are, “Trees, lobsters, rugged coastlines, granite, waves, skiing, foliage, Fryeburg Fair, and lakes.”

“I think of woods, lakes, mountains, and of home,” reported Science teacher Mark Soehren.

Donna Marcotte-Bell, also a teacher, was the only person interviewed who included a negative side to Maine. In her words, “Beautiful, outdoor activities, vacation land, authentic people, and poverty.”

Other teachers said things like cold, snow, hunting, scenic, family, ocean, outdoors, pine-trees, and wildlife.

Burns gave us a longer story. “A memory I have from childhood is when my parents had an old Volkswagen Beetle, and we lived in Waterford. The road turned to a dirt road just beyond our house and no one lived on the road. It was always quiet and [there were] no cars. Before we had our licenses, well before, my brother and I would drive the Volkswagen Bug up and down the dirt road. My favorite thing to do was to bomb down the dirt road, then cut down to a logging road and drive up deep into the woods. It’s something you can’t do if you lived other places. It’s so perfectly Waterford. But it’s also so perfectly Maine too. Even though it’s technically breaking the law, if you live in Maine it’s part of what you do; it’s part of what makes us Mainer’s.”

Clearly all the people that were asked had something to say of the state of Maine, but maybe it's not the words that are important when you think of Maine. Maybe it's the experiences.