Joseph Lujan is an alumnus of UOG who is a student counselor at John F. Kennedy High School.<\/span><\/p>\n

He received his Bachelor\u2019s in social work with a minor in Sociology in 2008. Three years later, he completed a Master\u2019s in counseling with an emphasis in school and mental health counseling.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Lujan graduated in 2008, he wanted to become a social worker, but instead he became a student counselor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI became a student counselor by accident,\u201d Lujan said. <\/span><\/p>\n

He explained that most places weren’t hiring for social workers and if they were, it was a three to six month waiting period to get into the government. \u201cOne of my friends said, \u2018lets go become student counselors\u2019 and I said, \u2018okay, shoot let\u2019s go try it out,\u2019 so I applied.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

His first<\/span> job was<\/span> at D.L. Perez Elementary School and loved working with kids. <\/span><\/p>\n

He took some time off work to work on his Master\u2019s degree. <\/span><\/p>\n

He landed a job at Benavente Middle School, where he worked until August 2015. He then transferred to JFK.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no typical day,\u201d Lujan said.\u201dI wish there was. Your day always varies.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Lujan explained that everyday is different and is what he enjoys about his job. He said he’s either talking to parents\/students, helping students, doing paper work, or helping prepare seniors for life after high school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Helping students doesn’t stop there. Lujan is also an adult advisor at Youth for Youth Live Guam(YFYLG). \u00a0YFYLG focuses on youth empowerment and encouraging youth to live a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle. As an adult advisor, Lujan assists members of the organization and encourages other teens in the community to live a positive and healthy lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe skills I learned as a counselor, I’m able to apply it to my work with Youth for Youth, \u201d Lujan said, \u201cA lot of them look to me as a mentor.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

He helps coordinate their annual youth conference which is always held at the Hyatt around Spring. He helps train the youth members also known as facilitators on presentation skills, issues on topics such as substance abuse, suicide prevention, team building, and how to run a \u201cfamily group\u201d which is a small team of 10 to 15 teens. He teaches the skills he\u2019s learned from UOG to the facilitators at a high\/middle school level.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph Lujan is an alumnus of UOG who is a student counselor at John F. Kennedy High School. He received his Bachelor\u2019s in social work with a minor in Sociology in 2008. Three years later, he completed a Master\u2019s in counseling with an emphasis in school and mental health counseling. When Lujan graduated in 2008, … <\/p>\n

Read more “A Life Revolved around Students”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":2759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[332],"yoast_head":"\n