My Biggest Challenge as a School Counselor

Kaet Barron won the Today’s Woman Way to Go Woman! Award for Leadership. She is a
school counselor at Maryville Elementary Schools, Bullitt County Public Schools.

“One of the most challenging things I have come across in my career is the amount of children who have a parent or family member incarcerated,” says School Counselor Kaet Barron. “Once it became a personal issue for me (several of her students had parents involved in a drug bust), I began to realize that while it was a major issue, there were very limited resources and support systems in the state of Kentucky. I immediately knew it would be my mission to increase resources in Kentuckiana for this population.”

“My ‘mission’ isn’t complete yet, but I have worked very hard for the past two years to do what I can. I fundraised over $3,000 to bring Ann Adalist Estrin (the director of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated, and White House expert on incarceration) to Kentucky to lead a free training for interested professionals across the state.”

“It has been an uphill battle and a battle I wasn’t sure how to even begin fighting, but I knew it was important…to me and to my students at school and children in the community. I have led numerous trainings across the state for school counselors, social workers, therapists, and other interested stakeholders in the community.”