This fall, Ms. Kalais Samuelson, La Salle’s new academic learning specialist, joined the community with goals to help students with their accommodation plans, improve study skills, and ensure students feel safe and supported while practicing self-advocacy with their learning.
Reflecting on her first semester at La Salle, Ms. Samuelson appreciates what working with high school students has offered her.
“I love the perspectives that students bring to the table and new ways of thinking,” she said. “It’s a really cool thing to be a part of.”
For her work at La Salle, Ms. Samuelson meets with students during the days she is here to discuss study habits, how to organize their time well, and ways students can advocate for themselves and talk to their teachers.
Ms. Samuelson completed her undergraduate education at Seattle Pacific University, majoring in developmental psychology and minoring in sociology. Currently, she is a graduate student at the University of Oregon, studying to become a school psychologist. She is also working as a practicum student through UO, meaning she is shadowing a school psychologist to learn the roles and responsibilities of the job.
She used to work for Oregon Health and Science University through a program called On Track. During her time there, she traveled across Oregon, helping middle school students by providing them with a science curriculum that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
“The whole point of the program was to get underrepresented students into health and science fields,” she said.
While she appreciated her time at On Track, she felt that staying at one school, like La Salle, allows her to better connect with the students she helps.
“I can really get to know students and staff, and understand the cultural and specific needs of the school,” she said.
So far, adjusting to La Salle has been different from her previous jobs because she is at one school and she only works part-time.
“There are a lot of students with a lot of different learning needs and trying to make sure that they are all getting what they deserve is really hard when I’m only here a couple days out of the week,” she said.
Despite this, she has enjoyed the process, especially watching freshmen experience high school for the first time and seeing students respond to plans they put in place that allow them to continue on their learning journeys.
“I just really love working with students,” she said. “I always enjoyed my time at school, and I really want to be a part in making that enjoyable for other people.”
With final exams recently wrapped up, Ms. Samuelson had helped her students achieve their goals through creating specific study guides with them, implementing study schedules, and helped students connect with their teachers. Her main goal now is to reach even more students in the community.
“I would love to get to know more of the student population and figure out how everyone can access their learning better,” she said.
Outside of her graduate education, practicum work, and job at La Salle, Ms. Samuelson stays busy with rowing. She was pushed to join the sport by her college roommate, and she has enjoyed the team culture and the sense of accomplishment it brought to her every day.
“Classmates at school are just waking up, and it’s like, I’ve already achieved something today,” she said.
Now, she competes in Oregon and Washington on a masters rowing team, attending practices as early as 5:15 a.m.
Apart from rowing, Ms. Samuelson enjoys music by the artist Gregory Alan Isakov. In her free time, she enjoys checking out Portland’s many independent coffee shops, typically spending some time studying. She also likes to read science fiction, her favorite one being the first book of the “Dune” franchise.
