The ‘First Responder’ Helping Students Navigate Roadblocks

To an outside observer, faculty member Christopher Correia and a wiry 10th grader named Jarell might look like two friends taking a casual stroll on The Greene School campus. But the walk-and-talk is in fact a weekly check-in and an opportunity for Correia to celebrate Jarell’s progress meeting behavioral goals. 

Though he expected the teen to feel hesitant about working with him, Correia was pleased to see Jarell following through on his goals and exercising more self-regulation, which led to a big jump in his grades and a noticeable change in “your affect, your attitude, the way you’re showing up to class,” Correia said.   

Correia is not a traditional guidance counselor—The Greene School has one of those, and a school psychologist, too—he’s a restorative specialist, a key role that’s a mix of guidance, mentorship, and discipline and replaces what more traditional public schools might call a dean. But unlike traditional high school disciplinary or guidance roles, Correia’s work focuses on connection, reflection, and repair. 

He describes himself as a “first responder” for students who need varying degrees of help—anything from a listening ear to an action plan for getting back on track academically or behaviorally. But kids “don’t have to be struggling or be in this red zone” for Correia to intervene. Sometimes they just need a break from academic stress, social pressure, or issues at home.

Getting kids outside for walks helps them feel more comfortable opening up about challenges they might be experiencing, Correia says. But as the youngest administrator at the school, who easily passes for a student himself—during my two-day reporting visit, I observed him fist-bumping kids, cracking jokes, and picking up conversations with students like old friends—he doesn’t need much help in that department. 

Correia says he makes an intentional effort to spend most of his time outside of his office, circulating in classrooms, hallways, and outdoors, chatting with students and building relationships with them. “Every single day, I’m immersed in everybody’s business; I’m kind of involved in everything,” he says. “I just really view it as creating a better environment for the students and also introducing a different approach to school.” 

It’s a unique role that Alex Edelmann, principal of The Greene School, describes as essential for maintaining the school’s strong community and preparing kids for real-world challenges. “His job is to help students understand themselves and understand others,” Edelmann says, adding that perhaps the most important part of his role is to help students push past whatever drama or disturbance they’re experiencing, “to identify the feelings and relationship dynamics that are underneath everything.”

Listen First

At the beginning of the school year, when Jarell’s behavior was beginning to concern his teachers and disrupt class, Correia did what he often does with students experiencing turbulence—he pulled him aside, listened to his concerns, and worked with Jarell’s teachers to create a plan. 

“Kids need to be heard, even if what they have to say is maybe a really biased opinion, or they don’t understand the other side of an issue, or they’re not being very accountable,” he says. 

Correia has a reputation for building strong relationships with the “tough” students in school, but he disagrees with identifying kids that way. “I just think they are carrying a lot of experiences, and they haven’t really been introduced to another side of that thought process.” 

Getting teens on a better track involves “getting them to think critically” and, ultimately, giving them tools to make better decisions. “I always want to leave the power in their hands,” Correia says. “At the end of the day, I don’t want them to only respect me. I want them to respect themselves.” 

In Jarell’s case, Correia discovered that he struggled to feel confident in the classroom, so the two developed accountability measures like ensuring that he asked for help when he felt lost, left class only with permission, and responded to his peers in positive ways. Each goal was printed on a goal-tracker sheet that Jarell carried around from class to class so that teachers could leave feedback for the two to analyze during their meetings. 

Late in the quarter, as Jarell made headway, he credited the goal setting as a powerful way to “lock back in” and take ownership of his learning. His attitude was different, he notes, as well as his willingness to “persevere and collaborate with my classmates.” 

In his old school, Jarell says, experiences with discipline were cut-and-dried. “If you got in trouble, they wouldn’t talk to you about it, they would just suspend you.” Working with Correia, he’s learned that “you have to think before you do something because you don’t know what the consequence might be or how it might affect you or the people around you.” 

A Collaborative Web of Support 

Part of what fuels Correia’s connection with students, he says, is how much he relates to them. Michael, a junior at The Greene School who transferred in from an urban high school in South Providence—a community very similar to the one Correia grew up in—counts him as a trusted confidant whom he can turn to for support, without the formality that might come with seeing a guidance counselor.

“He’s my homie,” Michael says. 

Nonetheless, Correia—whose professional background includes a rap career and running a music studio where he started an internship teaching local kids about music production—is quick to say that he doesn’t do this work alone.

“Teachers are at the front of the battleground in the classroom,” he says. “And if a teacher is really struggling with a student and can’t get through to them, or needs to contact home, I can collaborate with that teacher.” 

Recently, when a geometry class needed to “air out” some of the issues contributing to an unproductive classroom environment, Correia jumped in to run a whole-class intervention. “Some students shared how they don’t feel they’re all that good at math and how disruptions from other students make it hard to learn,” he says, and in turn “other students apologized for disrupting.” 

The goal, he says, is for “everyone to actually hear from each other about how they’re feeling in the moment” and working with teachers to “come up with a plan to move forward.” 

For many students at the school, this collaborative approach to helping individual students—as well as the whole school—problem-solve and grow is a new experience. “I think a lot of our kids come from schools where they’ve struggled,” Correia says. “Large public schools, where they’re getting lost in the sauce. Here, they’re able to build strong relationships with adults, and that’s a turnaround.”

Michael, the 11th grader, described the school’s culture as having “an interconnectedness—not only between students, but between students and staff.”

Jarell is quick to agree, noting that it is clear to most students that the adults in the building have a vested interest in their success: “They want to see you better yourself for you—and for the people around you.”