Dear Principal Rivera and Hiring Committee,
I'm applying for the High School Counselor position at Washington High School. I hold an Illinois Professional Educator License, Type 73 School Counselor K-12 (expiration 2029), an M.Ed. in School Counseling from Loyola Chicago (2019), and NCC certification. For the last five years I've been a School Counselor at Lincoln HS (1,450 students, ~310 student caseload across 11th and 12th grades) in a Title I school with 48% ELL and 22% IEP/504 populations — a demographic and caseload profile close to Washington's.
My program is ASCA National Model (4th edition) aligned. I ran weekly small-group Tier 2 SEL interventions (5 groups of 6-8 students) across 2024-25, with pre/post Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire scores improving an average 23% on the emotional-symptoms subscale. I lead college + career center programming — 90+ FAFSA completion sessions and 180+ individual post-secondary planning meetings last year, which helped 84% of 2024 seniors complete a post-secondary plan before graduation. I'm QPR-certified as a suicide-intervention trainer and have run three staff trainings at Lincoln on protocol adherence.
Washington's recent move toward RAMP recognition and the district's public commitment to MTSS fidelity are specifically why I'd like to make this move. I'd be especially interested in contributing to the post-secondary planning program and to Tier 2 group facilitation, where my current work transfers cleanly.
I'd welcome the chance to visit Washington and meet the counseling team. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely, Robin Okonkwo, M.Ed., NCC Illinois Type 73 School Counselor K-12
