When Madeleine McGarrity arrived at HKIS 22 years ago, she joined a student services team which looked drastically different than it does today. She was one of two college counselors working alongside a handful of deans who provided pastoral care part-time while juggling teaching duties, a model that contributed to siloing responsibilities and was a missed opportunity to provide robust support. As Adam Goad joined the team in 2008, there was a push to raise the student services standards and hire counselors who were fully licensed on the social-emotional side while also capable of providing top-notch college/career planning. Former counselor Jeff Steurnagel said, “Ms. McGarrity’s support encouraged the community to embrace the change to this full-service model in which counselors built relationships with students over their full high school experience rather than only at the end when college approached.” Colleague Janet Taylor comments on how the counselors in this model “have a good handle on the pulse of the community and serve as a good sounding board when I’m puzzled about a student. The advice is sound and they’re good at maintaining confidentiality.”

Ms. McGarrity, Mr. Goad, and the other counselors at the time implemented standards created by the International School Counseling Association to formalize how HKIS addresses the social-emotional needs of students. The seminar program was developed shortly thereafter to efficiently deliver seminar-style guidance lessons on academic, social/emotional, and college/career topics. Steurnagel continues, “Mr. Goad’s creativity and energy fueled the collaborative design of engaging lessons for students in the seminar program. His big picture vision and ingenuity helped embed the program into existing high school structures and ensure its sustainability.” This program became the gold standard globally for counseling programs in international schools, with regular requests to share the curriculum so other schools could adopt something similar in their communities. Ms. Taylor adds, “The teaching seminar has provided visibility and students get to know the counselors better. All of the connections counselors make with students, families, college reps, etc. is amazing.”

Structure and programming aside, these two long-tenured counselors have also brought their unique gifts to HKIS during two decades. Steurnagel says, “Ms. McGarrity’s and Mr. Goad’s passion for proactively supporting students has been a cornerstone at HKIS for years, and they deserve commendation for their collaborative efforts. They possess genuine kindness, humility, sense of humor, and a desire to make others better.” It’s impossible to measure the impact Ms. McGarrity and Mr. Goad have had on dozens of counseling colleagues, hundreds of fellow faculty, and thousands of students lucky enough to have worked with them.