Lydia Hamby

Taylor Stewart sits at her desk and engages in helping student in her day-to-day activities.

Taylor Stewart is returning to Liberty but this time instead of returning back as a student she is an intern working within the counseling department. She attended Liberty in the first graduating class of 2017.

Stewart says she’s always dreamed of somewhere where she is helping people. As a kid, she imagined being a dentist, or a chiropractor and even pictured babysitting when she was younger.

Stewart got back in touch with Liberty and was able to receive an internship by keeping in touch with her teachers. Within one of Stewart’s college classes, her assignment was to connect with a counselor in an area you hope to work someday.

Stewart had the chance to interview Mr. Cunningham. She says she would love the opportunity to come back and work at Liberty someday. Through her interview, she was also asked back to coach JV dance at Liberty. She used Cunningham to help her get connected with the internship that she is partaking in this semester.

Stewart says she really hopes she has the opportunity to work at Liberty someday. 

“I always had a feeling I was going to work with kids in some capacity,” Stewart said. 

Stewart says her biggest inspiration that guided her to where she is today is Mr. Barker’s psychology class. After graduating high school in 2017, Stewart got her undergrad in psychology from Missouri State and is currently in her last year of college working towards getting her master’s. During her experience through her career, she didn’t always know she wanted to be a school counselor. 

In college, Stewart experimented with the idea of being a family and marriage counselor. She took a course that really made her realize where her true calling was. She ultimately got to experience what it was like to be a teacher’s assistant. She got to help students with homework helping out with different things like study halls. Stewart loved it so much that she decided to combine counseling and working with kids.

When Stewart isn’t in the school atmosphere, she enjoys cooking, working out, and trying new food. Stewart is also a coach for the JV Belles. During high school, she was a member of the Liberty Belles. Stewart was also involved in Student Council and Key Club.

Stewart has had the opportunity to work one-on-one with students about any of the students’ concerns. Stewart has been able to get to know a lot of the students better by monitoring lunches and catching up on how students are doing during the day.

Stewart values the wellbeing of herself as well as students. Most people believe that in order to go to counseling, something has to be wrong with you.

“I want to reduce the negative stigma of going to counseling,” Stewart said. “And so it’s really important to kind of be in tune with yourself and make sure your body’s taking care of mentally, you’re doing well, talking to counselors if you need to.”

Most teens in high school could use counseling just for a little tune up. Making sure that we are doing well mentally. Stewart says she has even attended counseling herself.

If she could give a piece of advice, she encourages students to, “Find the things that you’re passionate about, and figure out how you can make a career out of it. So you’re happy in the long run.”