John Carroll alum, Jenna Reynolds ‘08, began her new job as counselor at JC during the first week of November.

Excited about her new job, Mrs. Reynolds recalled her favorite memory from her time at as a student in the school: the opportunity to be a member of a championship soccer team.
While she was at JC, the women’s soccer team won the IAAM Championship three years in a row.

She said, “I loved being a part of the John Carroll team because every year we got closer and closer. There is a connection and love that we all carry for each other until this day because we worked for one another on that field.”

During her senior year, Mrs. Reynolds was voted “Most Likely to Make you Smile” in the yearbook.

After graduating from John Carroll, Mrs. Reynolds attended UMBC where she played collegiate soccer. She later transferred to Wilmington where she graduated in 2015 with a Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling.

Before taking the full-time counselor position, Mrs. Reynolds did an internship at John Carroll and was a long-term substitute teacher.

Her experiences at John Carroll inspired her to want to become a counselor. She felt “becoming a counselor was the best way to continually be a part of the John Carroll family.”

Having walked the halls of John Carroll years before, she hopes to “bring some insight to the school” from the perspective of a former student. She hopes to add her personality to “an already wonderfully-thriving counseling staff.”

Mrs. Reynolds is excited to get involved in the activities around John Carroll and shows special interest in the soccer program.

She commented, “I can’t wait to experience everything on the faculty end compared to student life.”

Mrs. Reynolds’s favorite part of being a school counselor is the relationships that she forms with her students. She said that “these relationships are different from the relationships that students have with their family and friends.”

According to Mrs. Reynolds, the hardest part of being a school counselor is that she can’t be everywhere at once. “Counselors are very equipped with many qualities that can provide resources to all students,” she said, “but sometimes it’s hard to reach every student at a deeper level. I like to say that there is not enough of me and not enough time in the day to go around.”
Her favorite thing to do outside of school is to spend time with her family. Mrs. Reynolds married her high school sweetheart, and together they have a daughter who is almost two-years-old.

Mrs. Reynolds’s advice to students is to “be the best you can be today because when you look back, these will be the best days of your life.”

She said, “My life has been forever changed because of John Carroll. I think it is only right to give back to the academic platform that gave me my story.”