Kruti Parikh is a new school counselor, traveling between Glenbard West, East, and North. At West, Ms. Parikh helps students fill out their FAFSA forms every Monday. Just last year, Ms. Parikh was a school counselor at Freeport Middle School, attending to the “social [and] emotional needs of students.”

Before that, Ms. Parikh was a school counselor intern at North, serving a similar role to her current one at West. She was inspired to pursue a field in counseling by her favorite teacher in high school who got her “involved in a Peer Mentor Program, where [she] got to work closely with [her] own school counselor and mentor 9th graders.”

After high school, Ms. Parikh received a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a master’s degree in Counselor Education at Southern Illinois University―Carbondale. Ms. Parikh is excited to work with the students here who “bring [her] so much joy!” She urges individuals to reach out, to remember that “no matter how chaotic life is, there is always someone there willing to help.