HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- Bay Area high school students are now back on school campuses. And guidance counselors are there to help them plan their futures.
Today's Everyday Hero does her job with heart, patience, and kindness.
Jaclyn Cappello is a guidance counselor at Steinbrenner High School where approximately 2,600 students attend.
It takes a team of six guidance counselors, averaging 500 students for each counselor, to help manage the students' academics and to make sure they are in the right place emotionally and physically.
"We're trying to help the students and we're also hearing from parents who are having their own personal crisis and are not understanding how to parent their own child just because of the society we live in, and the emotional things that go on at home," said guidance counselor Eileen Charette, who nominated Cappello as an A+ Teacher.
The team serves everyone on the Hillsborough campus. And Cappello, who's been a counselor for 16 years, is known as the "heart of counseling" and the "go-to for advice and calm." Her colleagues call her the perfect team member.
"I started counseling when Jackie was 7," Charette, who has been a counselor for 33 years, said laughing. "She has this wonderful aura that says to us, I welcome to hear for you. I'll come to you if you need help."
“I think if you polled our faculty, you’d find out she’s seen in the halls, she comes to the classrooms, she double checks on both the teacher and the student, if they’re having a problem together. There isn’t Jackie Cappello staying in her office and getting work done or seeing just students. She is everywhere,” Charette added.
“Sometimes you have to go to them," Cappello said. "You have to go and check on students and make sure they’re okay and I think just being seen makes you more approachable.”
Cappello says she is always available, day and night, for her students who are struggling.
"To understand teenagers, emotions are a lot more prevalent in them. They feel things stronger sometimes. So I try to get to a point of empathy where I'm understanding where they're coming from, and I just try my best to calm them down and point out the positives, and break down what their goals are and break them down into smaller goals, so we can get them where they want to go," she said.
Capello said she credits her Catholic family for her power of empathy.
"I was just taught to be kind, to treat people how you want to be treated, and my grandmother that actually passed away couple years ago, I'd like to think I'm a percentage of her. She was always referred to as a saint on earth or an angel on earth. Her whole life was dedicated to helping others. I try to model after her," Cappello expressed.