Counselor Spotlight: Ms. Amber Miles
A deeper look into Sophomore year
By Peter Chon
Sophomores, have you met your counselor, Amber Miles? Take a few minutes to introduce yourself and find out how she can help make this year easier.
Miles takes care of sophomores and all PEC and EL students too — from conferences about current and future classes to meltdowns over workloads and social pressure. If you don’t know, she loves pink, and her office is a bright blast of color, like her personality. Miles is warm and welcoming, always happy to help anytime, unless she is in an appointment at the moment.
Miles knows what sophomores are going through — she describes a sophomore year as “the not-scared ninth grader year,” because, while it is not our first year anymore, sophomores still aren’t completely comfortable with the school environment. There is still a lot for us to learn as 10th graders, she said.
According to Miles, the typical sophomore student places social life as the number one priority, but she wants her students to know how much everything they do in this building matters just as much, if not more, than their social status.
“What we accomplish at Howard will affect what we will or will not be able to do after they leave high school,” she said, highlighting the importance of academics. She wants sophomores to remember that what we put into high school is what we will get out of it.
Miles believes in the importance of attendance, because missing instruction time six or more times a semester will result in an automatic failing grade in the class. Students who miss instruction time have the responsibility to “contact the teacher outside of class to see what they missed and when a convenient time is … for the child to come back to make up whatever is necessary.”
If the teacher is busy at the moment, it is the student’s responsibility to then come back to that teacher — she and all the counselors emphasize how important this is, since teachers often say students who are behind are reluctant to make sure they get back on track immediately.
Miles encourages students to schedule an appointment to come see her and talk to her whenever they need anything.
“You can talk to me about everything from academics to anything personal or social to education and career planning, what you want to do post-secondary, peer conflict,” she said.
She said it’s important to take part in extracurricular activities, as long as grades are good.
“I think maybe as a school, we need to push it out there more,” Miles said. “This is something that I can help do as well, definitely, is getting information out there, how important it is, and all the benefits of participating in extracurricular activities…”
Not only does participating in various activities looks good on applications, it also provides important connections beneficial after high school, Miles points out.
According to Miles, this year is the first time the department is following a plan for counselors to stay with the same cohort, or graduating class, until the graduate, which means Miles will be with us for the next two years, through graduation.
“I think it’s just like everything. I think it has pros and cons to it, but the good thing is that I can really form a rapport with the students and their parents. Also, there’s benefits to that because I feel like they feel more comfortable like coming to ask me questions that, maybe if they didn’t feel as comfortable with me, they might not be as comfortable to stop by my office and ask for whatever reason,” she said.
Miles is a Georgia Bulldog, completing her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at UGA as well as a sister in The Alpha Rho chapter of the Tri Delta Sorority. After working for the state of Georgia in behavioral health at a child/adolescent clinic and later opening her own dancing studio in her hometown Blackshear, GA, she returned to graduate school at Valdosta State University in 2010. There, she earned her Master’s degree in counseling and started working at Howard High School, becoming an integral member of the school.
Like it did for her, Miles emphasized that “high school will fly by before you know it. Hopefully, you will be ready to walk across that stage to get your diploma.”
She encourages everyone to use the counseling resources — make an appointment to comesee the counselors in the counselors’ suite.
