Kirsten Perry

By Marilyn Ferdinand, DePaul Magazine: Fall 2019
Kirsten Perry’s story began as one of struggle: “I was an off-track kid. I got into using drugs and alcohol in middle school.” In high school, things got worse, and Perry found herself pregnant at 18 by a man who was in and out of jail. Perry worked to turn her life around, went to college and earned a bachelor’s degree. Still, she found herself in her late 20s with no real career.
She remembers thinking, “I want to do something in my life that has meaning.” She investigated different master’s programs, and “school counseling kept standing out to me.” 
Familiar with DePaul because two of her siblings were alumni, Perry gravitated to COE’s counseling program. After graduation, she quickly found work in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system, first at Walsh Elementary in Pilsen and then at Rogers Elementary in Rogers Park.

K-12 School Counseling Specialist at CPS

MEd School Counseling 2011

When Perry became the school counselor at CPS’s Lawndale Community Academy on the Near West Side, she thanked her lucky stars for those previous experiences. At the time, the K–8 school had a Level 3 rating, the lowest in the system. Although Perry had been happy working at Rogers, one of CPS’s highest-performing schools, she says, “There was something inside of me that said, ‘I need to go do this.’”

“I didn’t come in with this idea that I’m going to be the ‘white savior.’ The strength is in the community and in the school. I don’t need to do anything but ask people—students are actually the best people to ask—what needs to be done.” 

Perry knew the dynamics of Lawndale Community Academy were far different from multicultural Rogers—Lawndale’s students are 98 percent African American, the faculty and administration are majority African American, and she is white. 
“I didn’t come in with this idea that I’m going to be the ‘white savior,’” she explains. “The strength is in the community and in the school. I don’t need to do anything but ask people—students are actually the best people to ask—what needs to be done.” 
Her ability to adopt a servant-mindedness helped her gain the confidence of the community. Drawing on her experience and the wisdom of those around her, Perry got to work, and “lo and behold, we saw a change happen.” 
Something as simple as holding all-school spirit weeks and pep rallies helped instill pride and motivate students to higher achievement. 
“I also focused on parent engagement, college and career preparation, and building partnerships with community agencies to support social-emotional learning,” Perry says. 
With everyone working together, the school saw a 4 percent increase in attendance, a 61 percent decrease in chronic absenteeism and gains in test scores. Improvement was so great that CPS upgraded the school’s rating to Level 2.
Perry, who now works at the CPS central office as a K–12 school counseling specialist creating best practices and professional development programs for school counselors throughout the city, is thrilled with the progress. She feels that schools in neighborhoods like Lawndale are misunderstood and face challenges other schools do not, such as lack of resources, competition from other schools and students who have experienced more than their share of trauma. 
“I’ve seen some of the most amazing teachers doing such great work up against such challenges,” she says. “And then I think people have these conceptions about gangs and violence in communities like North Lawndale. But there are so many amazing kids and families, and so much positive work happening that never gets attention.”