This year, Amador welcomes Mary Antuna-Munoz as a new school psychologist.
“One of the things that I do is evaluate students who are having challenges at school, whether they be academic challenges or behavioural challenges,” said Antuna-Munoz.
From Crayons to Counselling
Before starting her career at Amador, Antuna-Munoz worked with younger children and cared for children of her own.
“Before I decided to become a school psychologist, I used to be an elementary school teacher. I taught elementary school for fifteen years, and I was also a stay-at-home mother for ten years,” said Antuna-Munoz.
Even before she worked as a teacher, she had an interest in psychology in high school.
“I was an undergraduate major in psychology. So, being a school psychologist combined my interest in psychology with my background in education,” said Antuna-Munoz.
Supporting the Dons
Being back in a school environment, Antuna-Munoz has already noticed some new changes compared to her school environment.
“I think what’s really nice is the diversity of students. Just about every race and ethnicity is represented on campus. So I think that’s really nice, because it’s very different from when I grew up and when I went to high school, when it wasn’t so diverse and where groups were kind of separate and people didn’t intermingle and socialize together,” said Antuna-Munoz.
This socialization is a key part of Antuna-Munoz’s work. She often collaborates with fellow school psychologist, Brittany Oldfather, and the psychology intern, Kaylee Lawson.
“What I most enjoy is working with my colleagues… It’s just nice to be with other colleagues in the same field and not feel isolated,” said Antuna-Munoz.
Although Antuna-Munoz enjoys working with others, she says the environment is different from when she worked as a teacher.
“Another nice thing about being a school psychologist is that you just work with individual students or small groups of students. You don’t have to work with a really large classroom of 30 students,” said Antuna-Munoz.
One similarity between these jobs is their unpredictability. Every day, something new or unexpected happens. “What I like about it is that every day is different. No two days are the same,” said Antuna-Munoz.
