Greetings from RISCA President, Kristi Lombardo  Welcome back to the 2023-2024 school year! I hope that your summer was filled with wonderful experiences and opportunities to find joy, take time for your passions, seek out adventure, and cherish moments of rest and renewal. As School Counselors we understand that these acts of self-care are not a luxury. Self-care is essential, particularly as we model our efforts with intention to our students and the communities we serve. It is with excitement and enthusiasm to take on the role of President of the Rhode Island School Counselor Association. For those of you that I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, I wanted to take a moment to tell you a little bit about me. I have been a practicing counselor for 20 years and I am also a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with experience in a variety of settings such as a partial hospital, substance use treatment center, pediatric integrated behavioral healthcare and in a private practice. These environments have deepened my knowledge and have also shaped the counselor that I am today. Above all, my passion and happy place is working in a school. Outside of my counseling role, I love spending time on a trail or on the water, being with friends and family, reading a book, running or just hanging out with my dog! It is my hope that you can feel comfortable reaching out to me to consult, collaborate or even just to say hello. I believe that we are all focused on being advocates for our students and families, so what better way to do that than by combining our distinctive characteristics, strengths and efforts as one? Our connections are just what students all across RI need and deserve! I am also looking forward to seeing you at the Fall Conference on October 30th at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick. This year’s theme is “Dream Out Loud!” RISCA’s vision and goals for the conference are to celebrate our successes, share advocacy efforts, and ignite our professional passions and purpose all while providing timely professional development. We have a wide variety of sessions being planned by our dedicated board members and conference planning committee working tirelessly in order to make this event relevant and worthwhile. If you would like to be a part of the planning process or increase your connection to RISCA’s professional community, we would love to have you join in the fun, so just reach out to us! Let’s keep leading with compassion and kindness, and dream our dreams out loud. See you at the conference! |