Firefighter of The Mind

Firefighter of The Mind

Growing up, Rachel Collins dreamed of becoming a firefighter, but today she’s putting out fires of a different kind. Numerous experiences throughout her young life have shaped Collins’ future, and have led her into her career path of high school counseling today. Many of these instances have showed her what exactly in education is lacking and would eventually lead her to find ways to improve the system, in her future.

Collins was singled out in third grade for her spelling skills, which then led to an eye-opening moment to the unfairness in schooling. Throughout her childhood Rachel always struggled with spelling while her peers around her thrived. Her issues prompted her teacher to place her in a second-grade classroom for spelling, since she was below the expectations of her grade. During this time, she reported feelings of stupidity, and exclaimed that the teacher had “hurt her soul”. In addition to this, another way that Rachel felt singled out in her early life, was that she was the only student of color in her classroom. This resulted in feelings of loneliness in elementary. At such a young, tender age, Collins had her first glimpse of the lack of empathy in the world of education.

Throughout her high school years, Collins reported being average academically. However, there was always one class she struggled with—math. Because she had a hard time with this class, she asked a lot of questions. Unfortunately, the teacher did not take these questions seriously, as they thought Collins was just being sarcastic, and sent her out the door. This incident happened numerous times, and just gave her another reason to doubt the education system.

Collins got a glimpse of how educators can influence how the learning process goes, when she was confronted by her LA teacher about her talent. They claimed they saw a “spark” in her, which renewed her confidence, and gave her hope for a good future. It was at this point in her life that she realized how impactful teachers could be on how well and poorly things could go in the classroom. This shaped her overall path in life, giving her the motivation to go on to help and assist students on the verge of adulthood.

In college, she went on to receive a degree in language arts because she was impacted by the teacher she crossed paths with as a student. Although she loved teaching, she saw how important positive figures in a student’s life could be and wanted to do more with helping students with their emotional needs. This desire led her to pursue a career in counseling. Rachel’s favorite area of counseling is working with students through their problems and helping them sort out their messy emotions.

While she went through many phases in her life, from wanting to be a firefighter to a counselor, she always desired to leave a positive impact on the world.  So, while she may not be putting out fires today, she considers herself to be a firefighter of the mind.