Arlene Quiñonez has been a beloved high school counselor at Middle College High School for five years. In her half a decade of working she has influenced, mentored and changed the lives of countless students. Her impact on her students is truly amazing, but what drives Quiñonez to work so hard? How did she get to this point? What do students think about her, and how does she handle the enormous workload after the number of high school counselors have been reduced by half?
The role of a high school counselor is to provide academic and social support to prepare students for life after high school. Quiñonez is known to demonstrate excellence in all aspects of a student’s life, helping students whenever she can.
Senior Johnny Orozco demonstrates his gratitude for all of Quiñonez’s efforts to help provide proper care and guidance to her students.
“Ms. Quiñonez, in my own words, I would say is definitely a very great, very kind and very caring person. She always tries to go above and beyond in order to help us despite the fact that she is loaded up with a lot of responsibilities, whether it be in school or outside. I appreciate the fact that she takes time out of her day to come in and check with us on occasion,” Orozco said.
Senior Emily Melchor adds further praise to all of Quiñonez’s work.
“I think she’s very compassionate and she is always there to help students when they’re in need and she’s helped me a lot. I think very fondly of her,” Melchor said.
Although she has helped many students through her job as a counselor, Quiñonez explains her path towards the job she now has, stating how it was not her original career of focus.
“Originally counseling wasn’t actually going to be my career pathway. It was going to be nursing, I knew I wanted to be in a helping career, but I realized biology was not my thing,” Quiñonez said.
Quiñonez continues to explain that she found a newfound love for students after taking up a job offer.
“While I was in my undergrad program, I actually got a job as an after school program leader and so I was in the school environment and fell in love with it. Just working with students, I knew that it was a population I wanted to work with,” Quiñonez said.
Currently, Quiñonez works as the only high school counselor, taking care of almost double the 250-to-1 student to counselor ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Thus, Quiñonez must be flexible to withstand the sheer amount of students asking for help.
“I am the counselor for 476 students [in grades] nine through 12. The way I am tackling that is organization. So making sure my appointments are up and running, making sure that students can access me through Remind or through those appointments…Trying to dedicate some time to each grade level as I go,” Quiñonez said.
Melchor expresses her concern for the amount of workload that Quiñonez must do and explains how previously, all high school students were designated and divided by more than one high school counselor.
“How is she expected to be in charge of all four grades on her own? That’s 400 students. But before, [students grade levels ninth to 11th] were divided so each counselor had around 200 students and the workload wasn’t as overwhelming,” Melchor said.
Quiñonez’s workload makes it hard for her to tend to every student. However, students are very empathetic and understanding of her situation and are more than happy to schedule their meetings when the time is right.
“I know that Ms. Quiñonez now is juggling a lot, so I understand that there will always be something for her to do. It has been a bit harder for us to get in contact to schedule some type of appointment with her. That’s why I usually try to go in before school because of how crowded it gets due to the fact that she has so many responsibilities,” Orozco said.
Quiñonez is very grateful for all the support she has received and patience all the students have given her.
“I appreciate students being so understanding. There’s times where I can meet with you guys because I have an open space, and sometimes I can’t because I’m booked back to back,” Quiñonez said.
Fortunately, Quiñonez is not alone; she is currently mentoring her own intern for the 2025 fall semester. This new intern is able to help her with numerous tasks, making the workload more tolerable.
“My intern is Bridget Guzman … She does half days with me three times a week. She has been a huge help in helping me organize certain things as we go through program verification, through schedule changes, she has been here learning transcripts as well, she’s been making transcript checks and she’s been learning as she goes,” Quiñonez said.
Although not everything is perfect, Quiñonez wants students to know that she tries her best to do as much as she can.
“I really pour my heart into this. I do the best that I can with what I’ve got, and I try to do the best in situations. I always try to come in with a positive mindset. There’s some things that you can control and some things you can’t. And what I can’t control I have to learn to let go,” Quiñonez said.
