{"id":561,"date":"2019-10-01T09:22:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T13:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/?p=561"},"modified":"2019-10-01T09:22:41","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T13:22:41","slug":"titan-profile-mekaila-tucker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/titan-profile-mekaila-tucker\/","title":{"rendered":"Titan Profile: Mekaila Tucker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">She Joins Academy One at T.C. Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Araceli Quino Acho<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Mekaila Tucker joined T.C. Williams staff as a counselor at Academy One and the Satellite Campus. Tucker and her husband moved to Alexandria at the end of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before arriving at T.C., Tucker involved herself in administrative work and schooling while working overseas in Nicaragua. She worked for an organization that taught English and other subjects to young people from ages three to 22.\u00a0Tucker also worked for a staffing company and a refugee office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While studying for her Master&#8217;s, Tucker did an internship at T.C. and fell in love with the school. \u201cNot only is the staff great, but the counseling department and the team is great too,&#8221; said Tucker, &#8220;I loved the diversity of this school.\u201d Tucker herself grew up in diverse district, so \u201cT.C. felt just like home\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growing up, Tucker&#8217;s experience with school counselors so was less than ideal, so she devoted herself to being an \u201cear for someone to listen to,\u201d she said. \u201cI love helping young people, it excites me every time I get to think about someone walking across the stage or going on to their future careers,&#8221; said Tucker, &#8220;[I want] to help students accomplish what they want to accomplish.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tucker has many roles in the school, including checking seniors&#8217; academic progress, and providing emotional and social support to the students she serves.&nbsp; Tucker&#8217;s main goal as a counselor is &#8220;making sure that I am a safe place for students to come to.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By high school, students are at the edge of adulthood, and yet, some students are still not taken seriously or heard. One important aspect of counseling is \u201cto validate and let students know that their opinions, their ideas, their thoughts, their emotions, everything that they are going through is completely valid and it is heard and it is important,\u201d said Tucker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To her seniors, Tucker said, &#8220;Do not be afraid of new challenges because those new challenges will allow you to grow, and growth&#8211; even though it can be scary&#8211; is necessary and important. Always be open to learning and new experiences.\u201d<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mekaila Tucker joined T.C. Williams staff as a counselor at Academy One and the Satellite Campus. Tucker and her husband moved to Alexandria at the end of last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC_0664-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2019-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}