Doud Honored for Statewide Counseling Excellence; Cantril, Wiggins Named Regional Recipients

 

Lincoln – The Chancellor of the Nebraska State College System (NSCS), the Board of Trustees, and other system representatives honored Roger Doud from Grand Island Northwest High School as the 2007-08 Statewide Counseling Excellence Award recipient, Thursday, March 27.

 

Rick Cantril from Scottsbluff High School and Jerry Wiggins from Gothenburg High School were also recognized as 2007-08 Regional Counseling Excellence Award recipients. The banquet was held in conjunction with the NSCS Board of Trustees meeting held at Peru State College in Peru.

 

The Nebraska State College System Counseling Excellence Award was created in 2005 by the Council of Admissions and College Relations to honor high school guidance counselors for their exemplary service and commitment to students. The Council consists of the admissions directors and the college relations/marketing directors at Chadron, Peru and Wayne State Colleges and is chaired by Sheri Irwin-Gish, NSCS Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications, Marketing and System Relations.

 

Each fall, students attending Chadron, Peru and Wayne State Colleges nominate their high school guidance counselors by writing an essay explaining how their counselors assisted them during their college search. The Council then selects three regional winners. This year they selected Rick Cantril from Scottsbluff High School, Jerry Wiggins from Gothenburg High School and Doud. Doud was then selected as the overall statewide recipient.

 

“All three honorees – though this is not why were they selected – graduated from a member institution of the Nebraska State College System. Tonight is our chance to celebrate the success of our own graduates and honor three guidance counselors for exemplary service and commitment to their high school students,” NSCS Chancellor Stan Carpenter said during the award’s presentation.

 

He added, “The students who nominated Roger Doud, Rick Cantril, and Jerry Wiggins for the awards did so because these counselors went the extra mile for the benefit of their students. The honorees ensured that their students were not only prepared for college, but also that they selected a college that fit the students’ individual needs so they would be successful.”

 

Roger Doud, Statewide Counseling Excellence Award Recipient

Doud, who has served as guidance counselor at Grand Island Northwest High School for 12 years, is the third high school guidance counselor to receive the statewide honor. He has also been the head coach for the boys’ soccer since the program began 11 years ago.

 

Doud is not only a Wayne State College (WSC) graduate, but he is also a current student at WSC earning his master’s degree in school administration. After earning his bachelor’s degree in education at WSC, he taught in Polk and coached football, basketball and track. He earned his master’s degree in counseling at Kearney State College and moved to Gallup, New Mexico for his first counseling job. Later, he became a counselor at a high school in Tohatchi, New Mexico, where he worked with Native American students on the reservation.

  

After five years, he realized how much he missed the Midwest and moved to Storm Lake, Iowa, to be a guidance counselor at a middle school. Five years later, he became a guidance counselor at Grand Island Northwest High School.

 

Doud was nominated Ben Volden. Volden said, “Being a graduate of the Wayne State College, Mr. Doud personally helped me to decide on the Nebraska State College System. After visiting the campuses and speaking to Mr. Doud, he helped me choose Chadron State College. I greatly appreciate all of the effort he put into making sure the college I chose was the right fit for me. The role of guidance counselor is a special one, and having someone that cares about their future makes a big difference in the lives of young adults.”

 

The Statewide Counseling Excellence Award includes a plaque and a trip to the annual Great Plains Association for College Admission Counseling Conference held in Overland Park, Kansas in April. GPACAC is one of 23 state and regional affiliates of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

 

Mr. Doud and his wife, Shelley, will celebrate their 25th anniversary this summer. They have two boys, Nate and Ryan. Nate will earn a degree in business from Northeast Community College in Norfolk this spring, and Ryan, a senior at Grand Island Northwest, joined the Navy to serve as a nuclear engineer.

 

Rick Cantril, Regional Counseling Award Recipient

A two-time graduate of Chadron State College, Cantril earned his bachelor’s degree in education in 1982. He majored in physical education, health and driver education and minored in history with a coaching endorsement.

 

Cantril began teaching American Government, world history and driver education at Morrill High School and later became the head golf and head boys basketball coach. He also earned his master’s degree in education focusing on guidance and counseling at CSC.

 

He served as the 7-12 grade school counselor at Morrill for 13 years. He took the position of 9-12 grade counselor at Scottsluff High School in 1995.

 

Cantril and his wife, Nita, have four children. Rick, is majoring in business at UNL; John is majoring in professional golf management at UNL; Catelyn is a junior at Scottsbluff High School and Robbie is a fifth grader at Longfellow Elementary School.

 

Brittany Schultz, who nominated Cantril, said that one counselor went above and beyond what was expected and helped her through high school even when he was not required to do so. “Mr. Cantril truly made my experience at Scottsbluff High School better and is a remarkable counselor.”

 

Jerry Wiggins, Regional Counseling Award Recipient

A graduate of Chadron State College, Wiggins earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology. He later received his master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

 

Wiggins has served as a guidance counselor at Gothenburg High School for 10 years. Prior to that, he served as a 7-12 grade counselor at David City Public High School for three years. He received the “Planning for Life” award in 1997 from the U.S. Army for the implementation of an outstanding career planning program while at David City Public High School.

 

Elected to the executive board of the Nebraska Counseling Association, he served mental health therapists and school counselors across the state for five years. He was also president of the organization in 2003.

 

Wiggins and his wife, Jolene, have two daughters. Janae is a freshman in high school and Jacy is a seventh grader.

 

Tiff Keiser nominated Wiggins and said, “Looking back on my high school years, I realized how important my high school counselor was to me. Mr. Wiggins was outstanding to say the least. If you had a problem, he was there trying to get the situation resolved.  He located scholarships for me to help with the burden of attending college. He also wrote many, many reference letters. His compassion for my learning and well-being helped make me who I am today.”

 

The Nebraska State College System serves 8,500 students from Nebraska and surrounding states through three geographically diverse institutions: Chadron, Peru and Wayne State Colleges. Combined, the three colleges offer more than 200 degree, certificate, and pre-professional programs that are accessible on the three campuses, via the Internet, and in several satellite locations throughout the state. With more than 250 credentialed faculty members and 50,000 successful graduates, the NSCS provides significant human and intellectual capital that contributes to the current and future economic strength of the State of Nebraska.