“You should go talk to Ms. Kingsberry,” I told a student as she complained about her inability to manage her workload. “She will really help,” I assured her. She looked at me confused and asked: “Well, what does Ms. Kingsberry do?” For a moment, I was surprised. It then quickly hit me that many students have the same question.
Anais Kingsberry, Upper School guidance counselor, received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University and later her master’s degree in school psychology. In 2018, she began serving as the school psychologist at a Success Academy charter school. “Part of the reason why I got into this work is because I wanted to help address different barriers that can come up to help students succeed,” Kingsberry explained with a smile. She described a range of factors, such as “academic, social, or emotional… sense of belonging, motivation,” that can have a hidden impact on students. “What helps young people be able to thrive in the midst of challenges?” Kingsberry asked herself as she described her thought process when choosing this path of work. Guided by the openness of that question and her passion to explore it, Kingsberry is a figure of student support and mental wellness at Poly.
Kingsberry joined Poly as the Upper School Counselor in 2021. “I really wanted to be at an institution where I can work long term and work with my colleagues over a longer period of time supporting students,” she explained. “I also like that Poly provides many resources for supporting students. So, in addition to counseling, there’s also learning support, more recently a writing center, peer tutoring. And also, if there’s an idea that students can benefit from, the leadership here is really supportive. There’s a lot of support and opportunity for that here,” Kingsberry added.
At Poly, Kingsberry works closely with students who struggle to balance multiple responsibilities, a common attribute of overachieving Poly students. These responsibilities range from balancing extracurricular activities like sports, debate, or the arts with academics, she explains. “So because there are so many programs at Poly, there are many ways that students may need support with what they’re working on.”
Kingsberry also collaborates with teachers. “Sometimes a teacher might notice that a student is having difficulty in the class. Maybe they don’t participate as much, might be discouraged, or have a difficult time getting feedback or handling a low grade. So that’s a time when a teacher might reach out,” she says. She also puts learning support and teachers in contact to further help struggling students. “So a learning specialist in a meeting might ask, have I ever met with a student, can I give any insight into how school is going for them so we can put all that information together to figure out how to best support them.”
Beyond teacher and student relationships, Kingsberry works alongside administration. “So I’m part of the counseling team, but also part of Student Support, which is like an umbrella. We might have an idea for programming at the school and reach out to administrators to ask whether they approve of a certain speaker coming or a certain type of programming,” Kingsberry explains.
Kingsberry’s favorite part of the job is its range and complexity. “I enjoy being able to work with students in so many different capacities. So, you know, I meet with students for counseling, but then I might also, you know, do tabling for, Mental Health Awareness Month or Body Acceptance Week, or help to facilitate a club or work with a service learning team.”
If you were to find yourself in her office, Room 016, which is hidden in the basement hallway lined with identical tall, brown doors, you would probably find Kingsberry meeting with a student or teacher. Her days are filled with student-scheduled meetings, student support team members, and parents, she explained to me. She also mentioned that another large part of her job is note-taking: “trying to keep track of things like what did I discuss with that teacher? What did I discuss with that student?” Kingsberry is also involved in planning events and programs, such as this year’s Mental Health Awareness Month, where she helped create and send out an anonymous form offering students space to share their opinion on student support programs at Poly. Although scheduling is a large part of her day, she often deals with the unexpected. She may have to drop everything to have an emergency meeting with a student or their family, which aligns with her the goal that keeps her going: to support students. Kingsberry really does it all.
