In 1980, her third year of clerking for Bob Adams at his Ben Franklin variety store in Humboldt, Carol Larson took a day off to visit Pittsburg State University. She had earned an associate degree at Allen County juco, and decided there was more to life than working in a five-and-dime.
I was wandering a hall in the phys. ed. department when Dr. Tom Bryant (later PSU president) asked what I was doing. We talked. Before I left I was enrolled.
After teaching and coaching 13 years at Humboldt High, Carol returned to PSU for a masters degree in psychology and counseling.
On her first day of an 18-year counseling career at Iola High School, Carol said that for the first time in her life, I had doubts about what to do. Randy Burwell (also a counselor) took me under his wing.
When her accumulated hours and age (shes 61 today) allowed her eligibility to retire under the KPERSs 85-point threshold, she departed Iolas schools.
With a comfortable home near Humboldt overlooking a small lake, Carol said, I got a boat and thought Id fish.
Even so, the urge to be with students ran hot, so she took on in Humboldt where shes been a counselor for four years.
Carol said she wakes each morning eager to see what the day will bring.
I always have a plan, she said, which can be quickly shelved if a student has a problem or concern, personal, academic or for what the future may hold. Kids come first.
Carol now is setting the stage for 2019-20 enrollment. Soon state testing to determine academic strengths and weaknesses will be on students plates. A career fair is later this semester.
A recent decision by school board trustees has Carol weaving business courses into schedules.
Putting them together is like a puzzle, and sometimes it seems like someone has stolen some of the pieces of the puzzle, she said.
All students, kindergarten through senior, are her wards.
Carol makes sure seniors are on track to graduate and visits with them about what life after high school may hold. For some the reality of having to make their own way is an abstract concept. She tries to fill the void.
Carol often finds herself mulling over one student or anothers concerns well into the evening. Theyre always on my mind.
