A Responsibility to HELP
A relentless advocate for children’s mental health, Alma Lopez makes her alma mater proud
By Angel Langridge
Alma Lopez could hear the school’s band performing as she walked through the doors of the Livingston Middle School cafeteria for an unscheduled assembly. Her confusion grew as she glanced inside the building and saw her family, the principal who hired her years earlier, members of the school board and many of the students she works with daily. Apparently, she was the last to hear the news.
The assembly was scheduled in her honor — Lopez had been named National Counselor of the Year by the American School Counselor Association.
Lopez learned she was both the first Californian, and first Latina, to win the award. “Once the dust settled, I realized, oh my gosh, I am the face of California — the first one. I am this Latina, from a rural community. What a moment, what an honor, what a responsibility,” Lopez says.
Lopez, a Fresno State alumna, has relentlessly advocated to have counseling services available to students at each of the six school sites in the Livingston Union School District, located just over an hour north of Fresno.
As one of five counselors now within the district, Lopez has helped implement a survey giving students the option to express interest in talking to a school counselor. Prior to the pandemic, few students responded to the survey. Now, about 200 students have requested to talk to a school counselor, and Lopez and her team have followed up with each individual.
“Sometimes our heart is broken, our mind is struggling, and so we need to get some support for that and that support could come in a variety of different ways,” Lopez says. “I can be that starting point to help them get through it or help them get to the next resource that can provide the service that is more appropriate for them as they go through difficult times.”
She says that the counselors’ work during the pandemic has meant more accessibility. Technology has enabled them to have easier access to stakeholders. Many parents in her community work in the fields or production plants so they can use Zoom on a break rather than taking a full day off work.
Born the middle child, with four siblings, and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Lopez grew up in Lathrop, a town of just over 20,000 about nine miles south of Stockton.
Her family had one vehicle, so she carpooled to school. If that fell through, the principal, with his infant daughter, would pick her and her siblings up and take them home when he got off work. Lopez says he taught her the importance of noticing a problem and taking action.
In high school, Lopez remembers seeing a classmate wearing a Fresno State T-shirt. She started asking questions about the University and it made her start thinking about the opportunities born from a college education.
Fresno State was the only college she applied to. If she didn’t get accepted, she figured she would find a job and help her family.
She got accepted and her first visit to Fresno was when she asked her parents for a ride when she moved into her Graves Hall dorm. During the nearly two-hour drive, she realized how hard it was for them to let her go as she was their first child to go to college.
To pay tuition, she participated in the Work Study Program, working in marketing for the Craig School of Business at Fresno State. Incredibly shy in college, her speech classes helped her overcome her fears of public speaking.
Lopez earned two degrees, a bachelor’s in psychology, with a minor in speech communication, and a master’s in school counseling with a Pupil Personnel Services credential.
She has worked at Livingston Middle School for 15 years. “When I came to this community and started working with the middle school kids, I saw that they are amazing human beings who are far more compassionate, empathetic and kind than a lot of people,” Lopez says.
Her knowledge and expertise allowed her to contribute to the conversation about youth mental health and she wanted to be part of making a difference. Lopez met with her superintendent to advocate for a dedicated school counselor at each school site. Ultimately, he said they would invest $500,000 and put a counselor at every building, a huge investment for a rural community with 2,500 students.
Fresno State alumnus Jorge Arteaga, the principal at Livingston Middle School, says National Counselor of the Year Alma Lopez helped justify why every school in the district needed a full-time counselor.
“She has been relentless in ensuring that all our schools have a counseling program,” says Jorge Arteaga, a Fresno State alumnus and principal at Livingston Middle School. “She was relentless working toward justifying why every school needed a full-time counselor.”
When she was 7 years old, Brianna Sobrebilla, now an eighth-grade student, met with Lopez for the first time. Sobrebilla had behavioral issues and acted on impulse. She learned how to solve problems, control her actions and de-escalate situations.
“I am thinking about becoming a counselor because of the impact that Ms. Alma has made on me. It has inspired me to want to help other people when I grow up,” Sobrebrilla says.
Learning about a program in Colorado, she created the BIONIC team: Believe It Or Not I Care. It grew from five students to 50 students.
“What I found is if we give young people space and give them a little bit of an idea, they’ll run with it, and they will do some amazing things,” Lopez says.
Principal Arteaga agrees. “Miss Alma is one of those role models. She doesn’t just come to work to do the counseling job, she comes to work trying to make a difference in kids’ lives and in this community.”
