RHS Feels Like Home to Stephanie Guilliams

With a welcoming smile and warm attitude Stephanie Guilliams, counselor at Rye High School, immediately makes people feel comfortable. Even better she says that RHS feels like home to her since she has been coming to the area since she was 16 years of age.

The Guilliams family has lived in the area for about two years, but Stephanie shared that by looking through old photos at RHS she finds pictures that show family members attending RHS as far back as in the 1950s.

Now in her 11th year as a high school counselor, Guilliams grew up in the Brighton, CO area which is a small agriculture area not unlike Rye.

Perhaps part of what makes Guilliams seem such a perfect fit for the counselor job is the fact she says high school was tough for her. She shared, “We moved a lot, so I was always the new student which made me very shy.

Every school was different, so I was a bit of a struggling student. My high school counselor told me not to waste my time with college, and that my scores were too low. I believed her and settled for not going to college.”

After working as a vet tech for 15 years, while she and her husband had three children, Guilliams wanted to try something different. Having admired some of her teachers, she decided to go into the education field and returned to the Brighton school she had attended as a science teacher. After teaching science for ten years, Guilliams just didn’t feel like she was reaching all the students, so she moved on to the next step of her education, counseling.

Guilliams shared, “I want the students to understand that the only way you fail is if you quit; if you keep trying you can do whatever you desire. There is more than one way to a destination. I took a curvy path, applied late for college, and didn’t have the proper credits to enter. But I wanted to do this, so I worked at it.”

Curvy path or not, Guilliams achieved her Associate Degree, Bachelor's Degree, and Master's Degree in science and school counseling, plus the bonus of a full-time wife and mother.

Guilliams shared, “ There are a lot of opportunities for students to choose careers at this time.

There are the traditional fouryear degree paths but that is not the only path in life. There are a lot of valuable trade schools and a lot of high school programs where you can achieve college credits before graduation. The military offers great opportunities. Technology is so mobile there are as many opportunities available as you can think of.”

As the only counselor at RHS, Guilliams has to wear a lot of hats, but she enjoys the challenges. She says she loves how everyone at Rye works together for the students, and that includes the parents and community as well as the RHS staff.

Guilliams actually started trying to get to know her students in July, long before the school year started. She sent out invitations to the upcoming senior students to meet with her and review where they were standing, what help they needed, and what resources were available. She said she was overwhelmed with the response as not only the students, but their families also took the time to meet with her.

Guilliams said the best part of her job is getting to hang out with the kids and listen to them.

She enjoys building relationships with them and makes it a point to meet with each and every student at least three or four times.

She learns their names and chats with them in the halls, letting them know she is available to them.

In her time away from school, Stephanie and her husband, Jay, enjoy bird watching and time with their active family, including six current grandchildren and another on the way. Stephanie and Jay met while participating in high school rodeos and are enjoying having horses and being a part of the Rye/Colorado City Saddle Club.

Guilliams shared, “ This is a wonderful community. I am grateful for the people here and how welcoming they are. I am fortunate and blessed for the opportunity to work with these students and families as well as my coworkers.”