In the room across from Linda Mahoney’s desk, Micaela Violette has moved into her new niche in the school as the school’s second social worker.

Violette works closely with the guidance department and provides individual counseling for students to help with social skills and how to manage anxiety.

She was a clinical social worker, which means she deals a lot with mental health issues in students. Violette also helps families to direct them to resources and support systems they might need outside of school.

Violette originally came from the McLean Psychiatric Hospital, and spent the last five years working with the inpatient adolescent unit. She also spent a year working at a middle school in Mattapan.

She finds that working in schools, she gets to spend more time with students, whereas in a hospital, patients may only be there for a few days. Being able to work with students over a longer period of time allows her to move slower and see progress more.

Violette first got a degree in psychology and then went to Boston College for social work. She always knew that she wanted to work with teenagers, but as she went through college, she noticed her vast interest in mental health and decided to take the social worker route.

“I think for a short period of time I might have wanted to be a teacher, but I became very interested in mental illness and really not wanting people to be defined or restricted by their mental illness[…] Social work was a natural field for me,” Violette said.

One her favorite aspects of her job is the variety of people she gets to meet while working with them. Violette also enjoys the satisfaction of seeing the progress her students make.

“My favorite thing is getting to meet all different types of teenagers. I love getting to know other people’s personalities and I think that one of my favorite things is getting to see getting to see people feel more comfortable in his own skin,” Violette said.

From her initial view of WA, Violette likes how the students are driven and challenge themselves to be successful.

“I love the enthusiasm of the students. I think people have a desire to do well in school and be successful, but I also think that kids her have fun and I think its awesome how many people are involved in clubs and activities and sports, so far I have gotten a great vibe from all the students”

Violette enjoys the atmosphere of WA and like how everyone collaborates and helps each other.

“I think the culture of the school. I think different school do things different ways I think one of the things I really love about Westford is how everyone works together everybody really collaborates together not just staff but students and  staff work together and i think this community here is very respectful of one another,” said Violette.