It’s #freeyourmindfriday and Whitney from @whitneyfischmsw is taking over our insta from L.A. to share all things mental health! Check out her story below!
It all started when I was 19 years old. I came to a crossroads in my life where I needed to choose whether or not to continue to hustle in the modeling industry or to leave all of that behind in order to pursue a deeper, more meaningful life. Blessedly, I chose the latter.
As an undergraduate student at The College of Wooster, I spent a summer working at The Anti-Defamation League with a focus on Hate Crimes legislation. This led me to develop my skill is advocacy and diversity education. It’s with this passion that I entered the graduate program at The University of Michigan’s School of Social Work. Upon graduation from Michigan, I took a position as a school counselor at a private Middle School in Miami, FL where I gained a holistic understanding of the systems structure that is schools.
It was in my role as a middle school counselor that my professional and personal goals of becoming an advocate for youth + families finally came together. Three years later, I was brought to a private high school in Los Angeles, CA to develop a comprehensive school counselor department from the ground up. This included developing a more age-appropriate and best practice advisory program, policies + procedures pertaining to mental and physical health on campus, a high school health curriculum, parenting workshops, faculty trainings and student counseling.
When not dealing with the trials and tribulations of roughly 600 high schoolers, I am at home dealing with the trials and tribulations of my 3 young children as well as cooking… a lot. I’ve been blogging about all things food and life on my blog, https://jewhungry.wordpress.com/.