Gabrielle Brundidge knew she wanted to be a school guidance counselor since she was a teenager. The idea first came to her while discussing college plans with her guidance counselor, Ms. Garcia, during her senior year at Northview High School in Johns Creek, Georgia.
“She was Hispanic, and it was my first time having a school counselor that looked like me,” says Brundidge, 38, who is Black. With her patience and knowledge of the college application process, she says, Garcia “didn’t make me feel as though I was smaller than what I was dreaming of.”
Years later, Brundidge is paying it forward to middle schoolers at Lee Roy Myers Middle School in Savanna, Georgia. Students at the majority-Black school need it more than most: many of the students come from underserved neighborhoods that struggle with crime…