Susan Alejandre

2755 College Blvd

Oceanside, CA 92056
(760) 450-8032
susanalejandre@gmail.com
March 23, 2015
Dear Phil Scheers,
I am writing in response to the School Counselor position at Orange Glen High School. I am a San Diego State
University graduate student pursuing my Masters of Science in Counseling with a specialization in School
Counseling.
Before starting my graduate degree program I worked as a mentor for the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) at
Hidden Valley Middle School in Escondido. Working with students in Escondido exposed me to the struggles they
face living in a low-income and gang affiliated neighborhood. As I worked with these students I found a common
strength among them. They were all resilient and strived to succeed in school. Each student was resilient when
facing family problems, living in poverty, staying away from gangs, fighting suicidal ideation, and overcoming past
physical/sexual abuse. I have worked in districts such as San Diego Unified School District, Oceanside Unified
School District, Vista Unified School District, and Fallbrook Unified School District; I have yet to meet students
with such great determination to survive and succeed as the students in Escondido.
I believe I am a strong addition to your school counseling team because of my understanding of the issues that
occur in the homes and community that students in Escondido face. Additionally, I am competent in providing
multicultural counseling to students from different ethnic, cultural, socio/economic and religious backgrounds. My
strengths and passion are working with students that are Undocumented, Foster Youth, Gang Affiliated, and
Homeless. I am not only competent in working with diverse population, but I am also experienced in using data.
I am trained in developing a comprehensive school counseling program that focuses on gathering data, making
recommendations on data results, implementing interventions, and analyzing the result of interventions. At Morse
High School in San Diego, I have gathered data on the progress of completing A-G requirements for the Class of
2016. I found the percentage of students that are on-track to meet the A-G requirements and provided interventions
for students not on-track. Interventions included credit recovery, parent letters sent home, parent conference,
academic group counseling, individual counseling, mandatory tutoring, and enrollment in summer school credit
recovery. At Potter Junior High in Fallbrook, I facilitated an intentional guidance counseling group intervention
that focused on motivation, study skills, and grade improvement with 8 th grade students at-risk of not promoting
from middle school. Pretests and posttests were given to evaluate students progress before they entered group and
during their last session of group.
This past year I worked for an emotional literacy program called Project Aware where I facilitated counseling
groups with students that abuse drugs, inflict in self-harm, have suicidal ideation, engage in violent behavior, and
are dealing with other personal/social problems. Through my work with students of different cultural, linguistic,
and family backgrounds I have learned the importance of listening to each students story and recognizing their
struggle and resiliency in overcoming their hardships and providing students with support. As a school counselor I
will advocate for each student so that they are able to academically succeed and follow their goals and dreams.

I look forward in discussing my interest in this School Counselor position at Orange Glen High School. Thank you
for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Susan Alejandre