During the school year, counselor Nick Brummet serves as the Clay County Community Middle School. But throughout the summer – and part-time throughout school months – he’s working in a different role, with the Kansas Department of Education. 

He served as the President of the Kansas Counseling Association in 2019-2020 and has been “heavily involved” at the state level ever since. This year he helped plan the KSCA counselor state conference in May and the KSDE, Counselor Cabana, which was held at the beginning of July. Taking place at K-State, Brummet said the annual event is not only for teacher and counselor networking, but a great place to find and maintain resources.

“We connect all counselors and school mental health professionals to the state department,” he said. “We try to be that connector between the professionals and the department.” 

Training and development are a huge portion of the event, along with multiple webinars throughout the year, he said. 

Serving as the middle school rep, the state council also consists of a high school counselor and two elementary counselors, he said. Adding that he is the only rep from a rural school and/or smaller school district. 

“Our team was kind of assembled with that purpose, we all just come from different backgrounds and a different lens on education.” 

Serving on this committee means receiving extra training, including working on a new school improvement model, he said. Accreditation includes the development on social, emotional, and character development methods. 

He also helped host a free webinar in July on personal development and career development for middle schoolers. 

“It’s different ideas on how to explore careers,” he said. “It’s so important to start those conversations early.”