Chapel Hill found a replacement for former guidance counselor Laré Meachum in Sonya Sutton, who started in early April after a 12-year career in teaching and counseling.

Sutton’s first impressions of Chapel Hill have been positive. “It is a school that has exceptionally gifted educators willing to help students reach their full potential.  I have encountered so many of my colleagues [here] who have different gifts and talents but use them for one purpose: to enrich and expand the knowledge of every student that they teach,” she said.

Sutton attended Berry College in Georgia to study mathematics as an undergraduate. Her first teaching job was as a middle-school instructor in Baltimore, Maryland.

She later went on to earn a master’s degree in school counseling from John Hopkins University in Maryland and an Educational Specialist degree in curriculum and instruction from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., both while teaching full time at a Baltimore magnet high school.

Sutton says her teaching experience in Baltimore prepared her for high school-level counseling.

“From my workings in Baltimore, Maryland, [and] being at a very competitive magnet high school, I saw what it took as a student, as a teacher, and as a counselor to get into postsecondary education. I’d like to bring that knowledge to [the students of Chapel Hill],” she said.

After finishing her Educational Specialist degree, Sutton and her family moved to Racine, Wisconsin so she could teach at a local school, where she was approached by the principal to serve as a counselor. Sutton accepted in 2013, citing her “passion [for] helping students to get through the college admissions process” and “reach their goals.”

To have an advantage in the admissions process, she says, students “need to focus on taking courses that match their aptitude and interests.”

When asked if there was anything she would like to say to members of her new school, Sutton quoted scientist Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”