District’s Fourth Annual Office of Student Life Conferences Emphasizes Importance of Student Advocacy

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – There was no shortage of ideas when Mary Leigh Harvey and her team began planning the District’s Fourth Annual Office of Student Life Conference. In the five years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous issues have been raised concerning students’ well-being.

But Harvey decided it was time to refresh the mission of everyone who works under the purview of the Office of Student Life.

“I need everybody to go back to the heart of what you do every day,” said Harvey, the District Director of Student Life, to the audience gathered at Saint Elizabeth’s University on Tuesday.

Getting to the heart of student advocacy was the central theme of the conference, which was attended by about 200 counselors and social workers. The annual conference is aligned with the District’s historic 10-year Strategic Plan that prioritizes social-emotional learning, sustaining positive cultural environments in schools, and building the District’s ability to support students in a wide variety of matters. Maintaining mental health, parent engagement, suicide prevention, and trauma-informed care were among the dozens of areas in which Office of Student Life professionals advocate for students on a daily basis.

Superintendent León highlighted the complexity of being a student advocate through his personal experiences. As a student at Science Park High School (then known as Science High School), the principal denied his request to drop Honors Physics so he would rise to the rigorous challenge. As a University High School principal, he called the president of an elite university when they refused to send an admissions counselor to the high school’s college fair. In both instances, the principals served as the advocate for their students, and in both instances, the children won.

“Advocacy doesn’t mean that you give someone what they were searching for. Your role is super critical,” Superintendent León told the social workers and school counselors. “There are opportunities when you’re going to have to put students in check. But there will also be opportunities when you will have to put adults in check. Some of those adults might be us, or colleagues, or parents.”

Carolyn Granato, Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services, said an additional purpose of the conference was to help create a stronger, more unified voice among the District’s student advocates in support of social-emotional learning in schools.

“We all share a common belief that social-emotional learning is a must-have in our schools,” Granato said. “Not only does social-emotional learning in schools help children become better learners, but it helps them become better human beings. They become more empathic, more understanding, and more resilient. It should never be pulled from our schools or our curriculum.”

Algernon Hall, a West Side High School alumnus and one of the conference’s featured speakers, likened the Office of Student Life’s professionals’ ability to be student advocates to a superpower.

“Some of our kids have seen things they shouldn’t have seen and heard things they shouldn’t have heard,” Hall said. “Keep using your superpowers. Keep advocating for our students.”

As part of the conference’s morning program, District officials showed appreciation for Social Worker Clementine C. Viera by giving her special recognition for her 27 years of service in the District.