Sarah Graham and Sheleatha Aldridge chat inside Graham’s office at Greenfield-Central High School on Wednesday, Aug. 10. Graham took over as the school’s new director of counseling and Aldridge filled another counselor’s position when school started Aug. 1.
GREENFIELD — Two new counselors have joined the staff at Greenfield-Central High School, including one who was once named Indiana’s Exemplary High School Counselor of the Year.
Sarah Graham, who won the top honor from the Indiana School Counselors Association in 2015, has taken over the director of counseling position vacated by Kim Kile, who retired this summer.
Sheleatha Aldridge filled the counseling position formerly held by Michael Rentfrow, who took a position with the Southern Hancock County schools this year.
Aldridge is serving students whose last names start with A-E; Graham is serving students whose last names start with Sm-Z.
They join fellow counselors Sherri Foster, who serves students with names ending in F-L, and Sarah Knecht, who serves those with names ending in M-Sl.
Supt. Harold Olin said both Graham and Aldridge make excellent additions to the staff. Both counselors were in place by the time classes resumed at the high school Aug. 1 and have been settling in as they help students transition into a new school year.
“We are working hard to make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible,” Graham said this week.
Graham, who has been a school counselor for 17 years, previously worked as Director of School Counseling at Peru Community Schools and Warsaw Community High School.
Her family recently relocated from Warsaw to Greenfield.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know the community as I get to know the school and the people here,” she said.
Graham said it was Greenfield-Central’s reputation as a family-oriented corporation that motivated her to apply for the job.
“I have heard great things about the culture and climate of the school system. I value the holistic approach to student learning and am excited about the various academic and extracurricular opportunities available in Greenfield-Central schools,” she said.
A licensed social worker with a diverse background, Graham has also worked in community corrections, home-based therapy, community mental health, residential care and alternative education.
In her free time, she and her husband, daughter and dog Toby love spending as much time outdoors as possible. Graham said she enjoys running, cycling and writing, and has authored a children’s book.
A self-described lifelong learner, Graham has earned a number of degrees from Indiana Wesleyan University since graduating from Northfield High School in Wabash.
She has bachelor’s degrees in social work and criminal justice, a master of arts in community counseling and licensed school counseling, and will soon earn her school administration certificate from the university.
Aldridge, a Springport native who graduated from Blue River Valley Jr./Sr. High School in New Castle, spent years working as a structural engineer before switching her focus to counseling.
She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Purdue University and a master’s in education — with a focus on counseling and counselor education — from Indiana University.
While at Purdue, she served as a mentor to high school girls through the university’s Women In Engineering Program. She also took part in the Mentees & Mentors program, in which freshman and sophomore engineering students are paired with upperclass female engineers who provide a sense of community and support.
The experience sparked an interest that would eventually lead Aldridge to switch careers.
“I enjoyed engineering but I really wanted to be a role of helping others,” she said. “I had seen a job posting for the director of the WIEP program, which wanted an engineering background as well as a counseling background, and that was the push that I needed to make a change. I quit my engineering job to go back to school before I had kids but finished up my degree while I was pregnant with my oldest child.”
Aldridge left the workplace for several years while raising her kids, but briefly filled in as a counselor at Greenfield Central Junior High School, where she also did a counseling internship years ago.
She began her school counseling career at at Southside Middle School in Muncie last year. Now she’s thrilled to be supporting students in her own community.
She and her husband have lived in Greenfield since 2006. Their three children attend Greenfield-Central schools.
“Greenfield-Central has great schools and amazing staff,” she said.
