Sarah Rippee is a new addition to the counseling center, working as the school’s Behavioral Health Specialist.

She attended Oregon State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development and Family Sciences/Early Childhood Education, and Spanish.

“Initially, I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, but when I actually got into it I found that I was just naturally playing more of a counselor role than an educator role,” she said. “Fast forward a couple of years, I packed up and moved to Seattle to attend Seattle Pacific University’s Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program.”

She’s worked in the field for three and a half years, and has seen interesting things in her job.

She said, “I worked with families in a community mental health center in Washington state for two years, and when I moved here I was doing intensive in home therapy for about a year before coming to Radford.”

Rippee said that counseling is like putting together pieces of a puzzle, and helping others figure out how to arrange their own puzzle pieces for a better fit.

“Essentially, counseling is teaching new skills in order to help people cope with difficult events, do better in school, or just make life a little bit easier,” she said. “I am also here to just listen. If a student needs to talk about just about anything, I always have an open door. I get to work with a wide range of students.”

Rippee said that she thinks Radford is great, and that students and faculty are friendly, welcoming and supportive.

She said that she enjoys working at the high school level because “that’s when students’ personalities and unique qualities really come through. Everybody is figuring out who they are, what they like, and what they want to do with their lives. It’s a pretty exciting, intense time.”

Rippee said she is a big fan of the outdoors who enjoys camping, hiking, biking, swimming, and playing tennis.

“When I lived on the mainland, I really enjoyed snowboarding, but in Hawaii I’ve been more into stand up paddling,” she said.

When she isn’t busy keeping herself active, she enjoys the pleasures of food.

“I really like food,” she said. “Both eating and making it.”