Upon returning to Baldwin County after college, Brooke Waters has spent the last decade enriching the lives of school children here in her hometown.

Waters, now in the middle of her 10th year of work as a school counselor at Foley Elementary School, says she enjoys the fact no two days are identical in her career.

“There are no normal days,” Waters says. “You have to be very flexible. Whatever issues come up, we do our best to take care of it.”

Waters is currently one of two full-time counselors at the school. The school also employees one part-time counselor to help with the workload, which has increased recently along with the school’s enrollment numbers.

Waters says she originally wanted to be come a psychiatrist when she started attending classes at the University of Alabama in the mid-1990s.

“The more I got involved in the psychiatry part of it, I decided I didn’t want to go the route of pre-med,” Waters says. “I wanted to do more counseling. I then changed my major to psychology at that point and got my masters after that.”

Waters received her master’s degree in counseling from the University of South Alabama in 2001.

Waters says her favorite part of the job is making the counseling process as fun as it can be for students to help them resolve ongoing issues.

“I do a lot of counseling games, and I try to keep the sessions very hands-on because that is my favorite part,” Waters says. “I like doing all the other stuff this job entails, but when I can bring the kids in, have that relationship with them and help them move on through whatever problem they are having at that juncture, that is the best part of this job. That’s always been something I wanted to do.”

Waters says being able to work in her hometown has helped her immensely during counseling sessions with both students and parents.

“I know a lot of the people. I actually went to school with many of the parents here,” Waters says. “It’s a huge help because I already have that relationship with them.”

TEACHER: Brooke Waters

SCHOOL: Foley Elementary School

SUBJECTS TAUGHT: Counselor