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Practicing School Psychologist Interview: Rita Balaporia

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Practicing School Psychologist Interview: Rita Balaporia
Practicing School Psychologist Interview: Rita Balaporia

Why did you decide to go into the field of School Psychology?

Rita always knew she wanted to work with kids, but was not sure in what capacity. For a while she worked in business, but Rita eventually decided to go back to school to teach drama. While in graduate school, she had a part-time job as a behavior therapist where she fell in love with the work and began to pursue her masters in Child Psychology/School Psychology.

Throughout her nine years in School Psychology, she has been in a total of five districts mostly in the suburbs of Chicago, and she is now working in the city with Chicago Public Charter schools.

Rita talked about her typical school day being 75-80% running the special education program in the building, almost as a pseudo-administrator. Rita said that as a school psychologist you are often …show more content…
She talked about having to grow up and dealing with people in a way that always advocates for the best interests of the student. Rita mentioned the need for having thick skin, being extremely organized, and having excellent time management skills to get everything done. She said that in many ways working as a school psychologist is similar to graduate school in that there are many deadlines and people relying on you for information. It is different in that people do not tend to care about your clinical background or the theory you learned in graduate school. Rather, relationships are extremely important and it is crucial that you establish rapport with staff in the building in order to have effective interventions. You will be constantly working with a team, and so you must adapt to the styles of various teachers and administrators. It is important that the child is always put first, then the parents, and then the other staff
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