November 23, 2010

Whitehall school psychologist honored

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M olly Gordon said that it is all about being there.

Gordon, the Whitehall High School psychologist, recently received the New York State Leadership in School Psychology Award after being nominated by her peers in Whitehall.

“I didn’t know anything about it at first,” said Gordon, who is in her third year as the psychologist for the school. “All of the sudden, I found out that I had been nominated for the award and found out shortly after that I had been awarded it. I was very surprised and it is very humbling that my colleagues would take the time to send in a nomination.”

“Molly deserved this award not only for all of the hard work that she does, but she is able to do the job so effectively because she has a wonderful spirit and treats all of the students with kindness and compassion,” said high school Principal Kelly McHugh. “The students are drawn to her and they feel that they can talk to her about anything. She leads by example.”

McHugh said Gordon’s work with the students also extends to the basketball court and the softball field.

“She coaches in two sports, and she weaves counseling into her coaching,” said McHugh. “One thing that is great about her is that the students know that her door is always open.”

“The huge thing is to let the students know that I am here,” said Gordon. “There are so many things that you deal with working with some kids where you might have a situation where the home lives are not the greatest and if things are tough at home, their minds are not on the math test they have coming up. The main thing is that we are trying to help them.”

Gordon said she was surprised to receive the award with only three-plus years as a school psychologist, but she sees the award as motivation.

“It definitely motivates me more,” said Gordon. “It motivates me to look at what I am doing and to work on things we can improve on and look into different things that could help the students even more.”