Lauren Nelson has been a guidance counselor at Portage High School for the past year and over that year she has dedicated her time both inside and outside of school giving back to her community.
Nelson, originally from Lansing, Illinois, began her educational career as a math teacher for seven years. The first four years of her teaching career were spent at Hammond Gavit High School and then she taught at Griffith High School for another three years.
“I taught math for a long time, but standardized testing really burned me out,” Nelson said. “I found out that my favorite part of my job was building a relationship with my students. I just realized after some time that I wanted to help kids more than just teaching them math. I went back to college to get my masters in school counseling, so I can help kids in ways that were more permanent than algebra.”
Nelson uses her position in the guidance office as a way to teach students essential skills and discuss whatever struggles they may be facing.
“I love seeing that ‘eureka’ moment; it’s amazing to show them how to navigate life. They will get to the point where they won’t need to come see you anymore, and they’ll graduate, walk out the door, and be a part of the world,” Nelson said.
Nelson’s job fluctuates with each passing day from helping students find scholarships to scheduling meetings via Zoom or Google Meet. This year has been tumultuous, but Nelson believes that students have been resilient to the multiple curveballs the pandemic has thrown their way.
“I’ve seen that students have been more communicative during the time we were exclusively eLearning. They’re reaching out to their teachers, peers, and counselors like myself more,” Nelson said. “It’s been an amazing thing to see. They really want to communicate and do well. I’ve found that the students are communicating better when it’s online. They’re asking for what their assignments are and how to properly format an email. They’re asking more questions than when we were in school.”
Outside of the classroom, Nelson volunteers her time at The Rock Church Hobart, where she runs the production team along with the student administration team. Due to the pandemic, church services had to adapt to the new restrictions on large gatherings.
“The Rock Church is like a second home to me. I helped run live streams of services during quarantine. I also helped with food drives and helped the younger members with whatever they needed,” Nelson said. “With all of the restrictions COVID-19 created, we had to adapt and change how the church did volunteering. It was definitely an adjustment to not have as many face-to-face interactions with people.”
Nelson’s passions revolve around helping the youth of the Region. Her work is helping shape young people’s lives. Nelson wants her work to reflect her philanthropic ideology.
“Helping young people is my favorite thing to do,” Nelson said. “Any impact I can have on the lives of my students is very fulfilling to me. I love giving back and helping others is something that we desperately need in this crazy year.”