This fall, Orono welcomed its newest counselor, Ms. Shauna Condry. Ms. Condry is the counselor for students with last names beginning with letters O through Z.
Ms. Condry grew up in North Forks, North Dakota and attended the University of North Dakota, where she majored in German. Ms. Condry later studied at the University of Seattle, where she received her master’s degree in education and school counseling.
Before arriving at Orono, Ms. Condry worked at Mandan Public Schools in North Dakota as a school counselor for 4 years and at Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado for 5 years.
She decided to come to Orono because it was close to her family in North Dakota, but not too close.
“I wanted to move closer to home, but not necessarily North Dakota” Ms. Condry said.
Ms. Condry had family in the Minneapolis area, as well, so when a job opened up at Orono, she decided to apply.
“Everything seemed like it would be a really good fit for me. I like the small community feel” Ms. Condry said.
Ms. Condry says that although she’s only been on the job for less than a year, she’s already really enjoying it. She still has to meet all her students, but the ones she has met have been “really awesome.”
“[The students] that I have met have been really awesome,” Ms. Condry said, “the families have been really awesome so far. The staff has been great, so I’m loving it.”
The staff at the OHS Counseling Office echo Ms. Condry’s positive sentiments.
“It’s been great because she had already been a counselor in a school similar to ours so it made an easy transition [from the previous counselor]” clerk Susan McCabe said.
Ms. Condry was tasked with planning the Kick Off to College Planning Night on March 10th. Ms. Condry said that planning the event was slightly difficult because she had to orient herself with the best college advisors in the area. However, with the help of the other counselors and her prior experience, she was able to pull it off.
“I did the same event at my last school, so I did have some experience with it” Ms. Condry said.
Ms. Condry has observed that Orono is a tightly-knit community, but because of it, she thinks new students may have trouble integrating into school society.
“It can have really great positive things, but then also some difficult things that come along with it” Ms. Condry said.
Ms. Condry recommends that new students join extracurriculars and sports to become more connected with the Orono community and to reduce some of the social difficulties of being a new student.
