Lisa Gutierrez

Describe what brought you to this research:

​​The overall purpose for this action research was to explore the impact of classroom guidance lessons on 9th-12th grade AVID students’ awareness of stress and stress management. Specifically, pilot a modified version of the StressOFF program. The concerns I encountered at my fieldwork site were the reasons that led to the development. My fieldwork site was a high achieving, large comprehensive high school with 88% of students continuing their education at a 4 year university or community college. Being a part of a high achieving high school can generate considerable stress among students who are competing to get the highest GPA and get into a competitive university. Given the opportunity to work with AVID students with the onsite supervisor led to many individual counseling sessions which gave me insight into how many of them felt the stress of expectations for high achievement. It concerned me that students were not able to identify and utilize a healthy coping strategy to alleviate stress. Research indicates stress negatively impacts students physically, psychologically and academically. “The average high school student reports having moderate to high levels of stress and it has been shown that teaching coping strategies to students helps in increasing awareness of unhealthy habits and correct distorted thinking” (Shapiro & Heatth, 2014). Research on the negative impact of stress on youth enlightened and empowered me to provide education and help build skills in stress management that could benefit AVID students in the present and the future.

What was your specific research question?

Will the implementation of a modified stress management program reduce stress levels and increase positivity among AVID students?

How has action research prepared you for your current career?​​

I am driven by aspirations and a purpose to work with students in developing academic and social skills. I intend to integrate data as a practitioner to make decisions and to provide evidence that school counselors play an integral part of a child or adolescents development.