THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604210054
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Arlene Ingram probably surprised a lot of people Saturday night when she stepped forward on a Pittsburgh stage to accept the highest honor her profession of 60,000 peers could bestow.
The Cape Henry Collegiate School guidance director became the first Virginian to receive the Secondary School Counselor of the Year Award by the American School Counselor Association. And, according to ASCA records, she is the first independent school counselor to receive the award in the organization's 40-year history.
Then there's the matter of school size. Cape Henry serves 750 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12. Only about 250 of those are in the upper - or secondary - school, the category in which Ingram was selected.
It's more difficult to impress judges when you work your magic with fewer total students than some high schools have crammed into a single study hall.
But the national award, which followed region and state honors, doesn't surprise anyone at Cape Henry.
``I've been here since I was in first grade,'' said Cape Henry junior Jessica Zaganczyk. ``She's been like a second mother to me. I really can honestly talk to her about absolutely anything - school, family, boyfriend, whatever.
``She just sits there and listens. You can talk to some people and they keep interrupting, but not Mrs. Ingram.''
Listening is something that Ingram does often and well. It's her way of finding out about concerns, then developing programs and materials to head off those concerns before they become major problems.
When a parent expressed frustration in dealing with a teenage daughter, Ingram quickly developed a support group for parents of ninth-graders.
Realizing that there are many problems that are common to just about every family, Ingram put together a student-parent resource guide with tips on everything from setting limits to mourning the loss of a beloved pet.
When a new student came to her depressed over leaving friends and family in her hometown, Ingram organized an informal lunchtime support group for new students.
Like most projects Ingram undertakes, the plan included input from parents, students, staff and advisers.
Ingram even asked her students recently what she should tell other guidance counselors at tonight's awards ceremony.
``They said that we need to emphasize family values,'' Ingram said, adding that 90 percent of the students cited divorce, sex, drugs and violence as major problems confronting teens.
While today's problems are different, Ingram's generation faced some serious ones of their own.
A 1960 graduate of Norfolk's Granby High School, she learned early how precious an education can be. She was a junior the year that Norfolk closed its secondary schools rather than integrate them.
``I was lucky. One of our neighbors was a teacher who held classes for a few of us in her home,'' she said. When the schools reopened at the beginning of the second semester, Ingram went back. Many students did not.
She did her undergraduate work at Old Dominion in physical education, taught for a few years, then took another few years off to start her family. She worked on her master's degree in guidance and counseling one course at a time and has been at Cape Henry, first as Guidance and Admissions Counselor and now as Director of Guidance, since 1977.
Ingram and her husband, John, a teacher and baseball coach at Cox High School, have two grown children.
Both her family at home and at school say it's nice she's getting the recognition that they have long known she deserves.
``She's the ultimate school guidance counselor,'' said Randy Pike, who has worked with Ingram in Cape Henry's guidance department for twelve years. ``She's the ideal that we all leave our graduate programs aspiring to be.'' ILLUSTRATION: Arlene Ingram of Cape Henry Collegiate School is the first
Virginian to receive the Secondary School Counselor of the Year
Award by the American School Counselor Association.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB