Posted on 2.6.25

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools celebrated National School Counseling Week Feb. 3-7 to highlight the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping all students achieve school success and plan for a career. School counselors play a critical role at every level – elementary, middle/K-8 and high school – and the district honors three of them each year.

On Feb. 5, the following counselors received a surprise school visit where they were named School Counselor of the Year:

• Lauren Mena, Winding Springs Elementary

• Christina Brown, Mint Hill Middle

• Alison Graves, William Amos Hough High

CMS has 439 school counselors who are certified/licensed educators, and there are counselor allotments for every building. They implement comprehensive school counseling programs and work to deliver proactive, data-driven core and supplemental support that addresses students’ social-emotional, academic and college-career development.

Lauren Mena, School Counselor of the Year for elementary schools, is a Charlotte native and graduate of East Mecklenburg High School. She attended the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where she played collegiate volleyball. She transferred as a junior to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to complete her undergraduate degree and received her graduate degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University. 

Mena was an instructional assistant during the 2011-12 school year at Morgan School (now Charlotte-Mecklenburg Academy) while completing her graduate program and completed her school counseling internship at Olde Providence Elementary School. She started as a CMS school counselor in 2013 at Idlewild Elementary School, where she worked for 10 years, and has been at Winding Springs Elementary for the last two years.

“The most rewarding part about being a school counselor is when my students let down their guard, trust me and let me into their lives,” Mena said. “It is then that I can watch doubt, hesitation and fear turn into effort, hard work and success.” 

Christina Brown, School Counselor of the Year for middle and K-8 schools, is also a Charlotte native and graduate of East Mecklenburg High. She received her bachelor’s degree from N.C. State University and her master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Brown has been a school counselor for 14 years, all spent at Mint Hill Middle School.

“The most rewarding part of my job is planting seeds for students’ future success,” Brown said. “A lot of times as counselors, we don’t see the fruit of our labor immediately with students. It takes time to grow and develop, but we have a unique opportunity to plant seeds, whether that be for social-emotional skills, postsecondary college and career readiness or academic success. I love when a student comes back, sometimes years later, and tells me that they remember something I said or did that made an impact on them.” 

Alison Graves, School Counselor of the Year for high schools, was born in Evansville, Ind., but grew up in Greenville, S.C. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Appalachian State University and her master’s degree in school counseling at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 

Graves has been a school counselor for 15 years and was a teacher prior to that. She joined CMS in December 1998 and began her teaching career at Irwin Avenue Open, where she stayed for four years. She transferred to Eastway Middle School and taught there for four years. She became a middle school counselor while at Eastway and stayed there for a year. She has been a high school counselor at William Amos Hough High since August 2011.

“The most rewarding part of my job is helping students find their own voice and discovering their passions, what they want to do after they graduate high school,” Graves said.