Kynedra Ogunnaike, a guidance counselor at Vashon High School, has been working in the St. Louis Public School District for 16 years. But her family legacy in school counseling goes back much further.
“My passion for counseling came as a direct result from being around my mom, who was a guidance counselor in the district as well for over 36 years,” she said. “I think of it as a selfish occupation. I give so much, but I get so much in return.”
Like her mother, Ogunnaike almost always has a child at her house. Some days, her students may need hair assistance. Other days, she is driving a student’s grandmother to the Social Security office to get some things squared away.
“Watching my mom, I would come home and people from her school would always be there,” Ogunnaike said. “She instilled that in me, and that’s what I do.”
Ogunnaike is one of two counselors receiving the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2012 SEMO Counselor of the Year Award.
Ogunnaike received a master’s degree in education from University of Missouri – St. Louis and another master’s from Lesley University in education technology. She is working on a doctorate degree in education technology as well, and is excited by the role that technology can potentially play in the mental health.
“From working here with students, I realize that it’s the way to really capture them. It’s a way to key into the students,” she said.
“A lot of times students will not come out and say things. They will email you, especially the ones that normally wouldn’t say anything. They will use technology.”
She does not recommend for students to use site such as Facebook as a way to work through their issues because it attaches a face to them. Her ideal use of technology and counseling for young people would be sites that give encouragement and would allow users to share anonymously in monitored, small online groups. However, she has not found any sites she would recommend to her students yet. Instead, she offers them a bit of caution.
“The most important thing I’ve learned is trying to get students to realize that once you put it out in cyberspace,” she said, “you cannot get it back.”
Ogunnaike knows that she has a strong impact on her students. The cases that she likes to think about are the students who come into her office freshman year and say they have no ambition to go to college.
“I say, ‘Oh yes you are, you just don’t know it yet,’” she said.
Then come senior year, she sees them coming in with acceptance letters, and she knows she had a part to play in that.
She also told the story of a student whose mother passed away her freshman year. Ogunnaike took the student under her wing.
“I picked her and her grandma up and took them places. Her grandma and I have a good relationship,” she said.
“Originally she wasn’t doing well in classes, so we got her into tutoring and night classes, and now she is on track. That is a typical story, and that kind of thing happens all the time.”
Ogunnaike grew up in single-parent home in the inner city. She attended private school and lived in the areas where most people went to public school.
“That played a key role in me wanting to work with students at Vashon,” she said. “It’s important for me to work with students who are underserved. I get a lot out of being a mentor to them and giving back.”
The school is not located in the best neighborhood, but it’s not the worst, she said.
“We take what we have and we make dreams come true, that’s what we do,” she said.
