For students at South Oak Cliff High School, planning for life after graduation begins with the guidance of the counseling team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading this effort is Gala Smith, a school counselor who is setting the tone for a collaborative and compassionate environment that supports students.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith understands firsthand what it takes to guide students toward their goals. She has served as a high school counselor at SOC for six years and credits much of her success to the strength of her team.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCounselors are patient, caring, and they have consideration for others,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have great leadership skills and the ability to motivate our students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before transitioning to high school, Smith spent 18 years as an elementary and middle school counselor. Since her time at South Oak Cliff, she built on that experience while developing strategies tailored to the unique needs of high school students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each year, students at South Oak Cliff earn college scholarships with the support of counselors like Smith. Through intentional guidance at every stage of the application process, she helps students while they craft essays that are strong, reflective, and most importantly, complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A graduate of Alcorn State University, Smith earned her master\u2019s degree in secondary education with a focus on school counseling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each Thursday, she proudly wears her school colors, Alcorn gold and purple, sharing her school pride with students and encouraging them to explore colleges that can serve as the foundation for their academic, athletic, and social success.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to make sure that students are successful in the next stage of their lives,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Community service is another key focus within the counseling program. Smith regularly meets with parents to help students stand out in this area on their scholarship applications.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
At South Oak Cliff, the counseling team prioritizes strong relationships with parents and families to prepare students for college, but also to support their social emotional well-being.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs counselors, we stand in the gap between the parents and students, helping families understand what is necessary for their child to be successful and to graduate from high school,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Smith, becoming a counselor was a lifelong dream. After not feeling fully supported by counselors during her own high school experience, she knew that she wanted to help students in ways she once had to navigate on her own, alongside her parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That experience sparked a passion for education, and she spent the past 24 years in Dallas ISD helping prepare generations of students for success.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that I\u2019m inspiring them. I hope that they gain confidence they can carry with them,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWhether they plan to go to college, or enter the workforce, my purpose here is to inspire them to imagine more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For students at South Oak Cliff High School, planning for life after graduation begins with the guidance of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,1492],"class_list":{"0":"post-253784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news","11":"tag-featured"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}