Mrs. Vanessa Miguez is just starting her first year as a counselor at Mount Carmel. She grew up on the Southwest Side of Chicago near Midway Airport and attended DePaul University and University of Illinois-Chicago. She has undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Criminal Justice and a masters of Multicultural Communications. Students are no longer assigned to counselors alphabetically as in years past, and Mrs. Miguez is now the counselor of the entire class of 2025.
Mrs. Miguez was an excellent student throughout high school but said she was unsure what to do in college. “I’m the first generation to go to college,” she says. “I thought I had to do either Business or Medicine. They were certain majors that you had to do so you could get a good job.”
After disliking the business courses, she took a few different liberal arts classes. She says she thinks it’s really important to go to college and not just do what will make you money but also what you’re good at and where your talents are.
She has been counseling since 2000 and has done so in a couple different colleges, but in 2011 she made the switch to high school to do college and career counseling. She says she has found her passion in this and claims that she would do this for free if she was wealthy. She has a firm belief that education is important and being college educated helps a person throughout life even if it’s not to get a job. “I knew that education was the key,” said Mrs. Miguez. “And I think education is so important.”
Our new counselor is also an avid sports fan, and while she has never played any herself, she enjoys watching basketball, baseball, and soccer. A history of professional soccer actually runs in her family with her grandfather playing in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and her father playing professionally in Peru.
Her favorite baseball teams are the White Sox and the New York Yankees. “Being a Chicago fan was tough,” she explains, “so I liked watching teams that were really good.” She also was a big fan of the Bulls when she was growing up because that was when they were winning the NBA championship frequently.
She enjoys reading, and her favorite book currently is How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. Also, she likes reading about the history of the First Ladies in the United States.
While not currently moderating or coaching at Mount Carmel, Mrs. Miguez said she moderated Mock Trial previously and was surprised that it was not yet a club here. She said she is busy now but is definitely open to the idea of moderating a club.
While she has not done extensive traveling Mrs. Miguez has enjoyed her previous trips to both Peru and the Dominican Republic. She especially enjoyed her trip to the Dominican Republic and liked walking around the towns outside the resort. In the future she wants to travel to Greece and Ireland.
Her favorite part of working at Mount Carmel so far has been the community. “When I came here the first time to interview for the job, I just felt a certain way,” said Mrs. Miguez. “Like I needed to be here and wanted to be here.”
Overall so far this year Mrs. Miguez has been having a great time and is looking forward to building new relationships with students and faculty. She feels like this is a great place and has enjoyed working at Mount Carmel so far.
“Being here, I feel like it’s one of the times in my life when I was right.”
