When Amy Buel began her internship in school counseling at Geneva Middle School in Geneva, N.Y., she was no stranger to emotional triage. Buel, who completed her master’s in counseling at Warner in 2004, is an experienced parole officer, career counselor, and addictions counselor, who has helped numerous individuals and families work through personal crises. As a mother who lost her 12-year-old son, Sean, to bone cancer, she also was keenly aware of the issues surrounding grief and loss.

These collective experiences proved invaluable during nine intense months as an intern at Geneva. During her tenure there, the school experienced a number of major incidents, and the counseling staff was called upon to help students and staff come to terms with one tragedy after another.

In just a few months’ time, a recent Geneva graduate committed suicide, a beloved sixth-grade social studies teacher was killed in a car accident, an 18-year-old girl was found dead in a burning building, and an eighth-grade girl was missing for two months and later found dead near her home. Any one of these situations would have afforded Buel a closer look at crisis management than any intern would hope for. As it turned out, this particular year provided an ongoing lesson.

Buel’s prior experience earned her a more active role on the counseling team than many interns. Buel says her mentor, middle-school counselor Trish Wiltse, knew that she had been counseling for a while, so she gave her a lot of reign. She noted that she felt like “a member of the team” when she contributed to teacher/counselor meetings. “I was able to give feedback from a place of experience,” she explains.

Buel recalls that the death of the eighth-grade girl was especially difficult because the crisis began with her disappearance in December and continued throughout the year. “It was a tough year for teachers, staff, and students,” she admits.

Following the discovery of the eighth grader’s death, Buel established a weekly breakfast club for friends and classmates. “My concern was for her peers, both for those who knew her and those who might feel guilty about the way they treated her,” she says. “At this age, kids are playing around with the idea of death, but they don’t understand it.” An incident like this may prompt kids to fear that they can’t count on life, she says.

Buel knows all too well that coming to terms with the loss of a friend or loved one takes time. In her own case, her enrollment at the Warner School marked the beginning of the healing process. At the time of Sean’s death, she was a single mother with a young daughter to support, but she knew she couldn’t return to her counseling job for at least a year.

Although her emotional reserves were exhausted, her will to carry on was not, so she decided to invest Sean’s college fund in herself. She applied to Warner—and only Warner—because she wanted to “do it right.” In her mind, Warner’s reputation for excellence made it the obvious choice.

For a year, Buel dedicated herself to her daughter and her studies before returning to her job at Finger Lakes Addiction Counseling and Referral Agency (FLACRA). Even so, long days, summer coursework and a lot of support from friends and family allowed her to earn her degree in two and a half years. Now the search is on for a school counseling position. In the meantime, just working full time will seem like a breeze.

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