The dimly lit office of first-year FHS social worker Michelle Evans produces a calm ambience, inviting any student who might walk in.
Having a peaceful environment in a high school, where many students face challenges in their lives, is crucial to helping them cope. Evans provides students with the perfect space to unburden their worries.
“High schoolers today are dealing with so many things that some of us adults did not have to deal with as teenagers,” Evans said. “Teenagers especially need a safe person that they can open up to and talk.”
In an age where students struggle more with their mental health compared to other generations, social workers provide the foremost outlet for mental health care.
“I think students feel really alone with the things that they’re struggling with,” Evans said. “They might be nervous or scared because they think that somehow they’re the only person in the world that’s experiencing this, or everyone else is going to judge them for what they’re going through, which typically isn’t the case.”
When Evans studied at the University of Illinois-Chicago for her undergraduate degree in psychology, she worked with her school’s crisis hotline, which people have access to all over the country. This sparked her passion for working with people face-to-face as opposed to other psychology fields.
“[The hotline is] something that pushed me more into doing practice, because sometimes social workers do more policy over one-on-one practice,” Evans said. “Working for the crisis hotline pushed me more into a micro lens as opposed to a macro lens.”
Evans got her Master’s degree in social work, saying that it was “a little more versatile than a Master’s in psychology.”
Before coming to FHS, Evans worked at Wood Creek Elementary School as a social worker for nine years. She decided to switch to high school “to get a different experience and a different perspective.”
