Kara Miller, a counselor at Powell High School, has been named the 2023 School Counselor of the Year for the state by the Wyoming School Counselor Association.

“Mrs. Miller is very deserving of this recognition. She is a great asset for our students and staff and continuously finds ways to help us improve our school,” Powell High School Principal Tim Wormald said. “I am very proud of her and feel blessed to have her in our school. I have no doubt she will be a great candidate for the national level of this award.”

Wormald nominated Miller for the award. In his recommendation letter, Wormald stated Miller is “one of the best counselors with whom I have worked in my 22 years in education.”

Miller said student counseling is about being able to influence schools through positive experiences.

“I think just being invited into their world, I feel honored to be able to do that with students and maybe hopefully make their high school experience or school experience in general a little bit better,” Miller said. “Not everybody has that same experience with their education and I guess that‘s my hope is that I always get to be a part of the positive in it.”

To be awarded this honor counselors must be nominated by a school principal in the state of Wyoming or member of the Wyoming School Counselor Association. However, Miller says the work does not end at the nomination. Following the nomination Miller had to submit an application that proved to the American School Counseling Association that she is using “the best practices within the school.”

“I feel super blessed to work and live where I do. The staff and administrators are so supportive and they were on board helping me get all the pieces together and write letters of recommendation and all of that, and putting my application in,” Miller said. 

Now that she was selected, Miller is eligible to win on the national level and has the opportunity to attend a gala this coming February in Washington D.C., where the national recipient will be announced. The event will also cross off a bucket list item for Miller, who has never been to Washington, D.C.

“This  doesn‘t feel like just my award. We have a solid team here at the high school, and having two co-counselors is so beneficial in being able to try to roll out that comprehensive school counseling program, all the pieces to that puzzle, and all of the data and the collaboration that comes into that,” Miller said. “So Trevor Lee and Erin Curtis are vital, and then our administrative support has been so much a part of that too.”