Mrs. Sarah Dearn is a returning counselor at Glendale High School. She was born in Dallas, Texas and she grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She moved to Riverside, California when she was in 10th grade.

Her favorite hobby has always been sports, and eventually she did make a career out of it. She played soccer at Cal Poly Pomona, where she is still the 6th leading goal scorer in school history. She’s currently rooting for AFC Richmond, and she is a huge fan of the US Women’s National team. She spends most of her free time with her son, who was born three and a half years ago.

What was your journey like before becoming a counselor at Glendale High School?

I started out as a P.E. teacher in 2001, and I taught P.E. at West Covina High School. I was also a soccer coach at West Covina. After that, I taught at an elementary school in Ontario that was K-5. 

Then I got a job at Glendale High School in 2007 as a counselor, and I was at Glendale High for 2 years. After the District reduced the counselors, some of us went back to the classrooms, so I went to Toll Middle School and I had been a P.E. teacher there ever since. Then I came back this year to Glendale High to be a counselor again. 

Do you find any difficulties in your job? 

I really love teaching, and there’s always going to be some challenges, but being a counselor and a teacher are two really different things. I also coached soccer at Hoover for several years, so it’s different being outside and having 50 kids in a class, but I do really like and enjoy what I do. I liked playing sports with the kids, but the last couple of years have been a challenge. I did have to relearn my job, because I had to teach online. I did learn a lot [more] technology than I had known before, so that did help me in the end.

Do you have any advice for your students who would like to do what you do?

My advice to my students is that if you want to be a counselor, or be in education in general, then you need to go get your [bachelor’s] degree and your teaching credential, which I am pretty sure you can get at the same time now. 

My biggest recommendation is to go to a four-year university right after high school. I know money can be an issue, but if you can, then I suggest [that you] go, because you would get a community of people at your school that you can connect with right away. You will have a better four-year college experience, and you’ll get done faster than you think. When you go to community college, it is harder to get your classes and ends up taking you longer than the two years you expected. 

I do understand why people choose to go to community college, but I did the four-year route. I did play soccer in college, so that did help. I think college is a fun time to spend four years, so that would be my recommendation to my students. 

How do you feel about your colleagues at Glendale High School? 

I love my colleagues. I’ve known Ms. Tabor for 14 years…I worked with her back when I first was a counselor at Glendale High School, and we have been friends ever since. 

Ms. Hovannesian, who I took over for, I also worked with, and even though we don´t see each other often, I do consider her as a friend. 

I just met Ms. Gonzales and Mr. Horton and they are great, because we have similar personalities and we get along very well. There are a lot of teachers here that I knew 13 years ago. They have come to see me, we’ve talked throughout the years, because we’ve seen each other online. 

I do enjoy working with my colleagues, and this is a really great environment to work in. I’m also really excited to see our new vice principal, because she is my supervisor and I can’t wait to meet her. 

What are you excited for about this coming school year? 

This is a definitely different type of year. I am excited for this whole covid thing to go away, and I’m not sure how quickly that’s going to happen. But it has been a challenge so far, because so many kids have had to stay home. I am excited to get back to a little more normal life and have a normal school year. 

In general, I am excited to be part of a high school again, because I think it will be fun. Seeing football games, other sports, and the dance team seems really exciting. I coached soccer at Toll and it was fun, but it doesn’t seem like the level you have here, so I am also excited for that. 

Mrs. Dearn has finally returned and we’re glad she’s back. She loves her job here at Glendale High, and she is very excited to be back and meet all her students. She says, “I have an open door and I love talking to my kids, so feel free to come to me anytime.” 

Please help us welcome back Mrs. Dearn and remind her that being a Nitro is the best!