A native of a rural area in South Carolina, Jordan Campbell is a Starbucks-loving hockey fan and a social worker from the Department of Public Health. Driven by her experiences as an adolescent, she teaches students about substance use.

How is that different from being a school social worker?

So we have a focus on more of a big picture public health. We’re working on substance use within the schools but we also do a lot of community work and working with parents. A lot of parent education around substance use and we also do direct social work too. Social workers tend to focus on issues that are happening at school, but ours is a little bit more community focused.

Why did you want to become a social worker?

I always knew that I wanted to do some form of counseling, and social work is really cool because there are so many different routes that you can go. I’m actually a therapist in the evenings so I have two jobs. So, it’s a really good mixture of being able to do a lot of different things.

Was there anything in your high school or college experience that influenced your interest in counseling and social work?

We didn’t really have access to mental health support and I was definitely a kid in highschool who was super anxious. I had periods of depression and I had really no resources. So I guess it’s just the lack of education that I had in high school around mental health, and the lack of resources that I had made me want to be able to do better for current students.

What brought you to Massachusetts?

I actually wanted to go to college in Boston. I ended up having to stay in South Carolina for my undergraduate degree. As soon as I finished my last exam, I packed up a car and I moved up here because I really wanted to be in a state that did have more access to mental health resources and did have a more progressive field.

What do you like about BHS? Why’d you decide to come here?

I wasn’t totally ready to jump fully into the school social work just because that wasn’t my focus during my graduate degree: I didn’t really know what a school social worker would entail. So being able to work through a different department but still interact with students at BHS was a really cool opportunity. We teach a peer leadership class and do a lot of really interesting projects with the students that are based on promoting better school culture and doing education for students around mental health. I think that the fact that Brookline High School has classes like peer leadership is really neat.

Do you think doing therapy outside of school helps you when you are doing social work at the high school?

Yeah, so being trained as a clinician. I think being able to bring that clinical side into the high school setting is really great because I have the knowledge and experience to focus on some of the root issues that are going on. Substance use is so interconnected with mental health, having a big mental health background really helps me work with the students who are drinking too much or vaping or smoking marajuana. I can see it from a mental health background instead of just looking at the fact that they’re vaping.

What’s your favorite part of your day?

The one-on-one meetings with students. When a student comes in, sometimes they’re really upset. A check in for usually a block and then when they leave, I can tell that they are in a better space so that’s definitely the best part.