Kindness Week Blossoms from Internship Experience

Anne Cabell Dougherty, an alumna of the Counselor Education masters program, started something new and inspiring this year at C.C. Wells Elementary School: Kindness Week.

“I wanted to support my school’s continued efforts of promoting school-wide respect, encouraging SMART tendencies, and spreading kindness to students and staff,” she says.

During her internship in Longwood’s Counseling masters program, Dougherty was placed with the school counselor at Swift Creek Elementary School, Sarah Bazemore, in Chesterfield County where she helped with Swift Creek’s annual Kindness Month. Dougherty worked alongside Bazemore and learned this was something she would carry over to a school once she was hired.

Doughtery comes from a family of educators. She began to substitute in Chesterfield County Public Schools in 2013 while home from Virginia Tech for winter break, summer break and over long weekends.  After her 2015 undergraduate graduation, she shadowed a school counselor, and says, “It was right after the day I shadowed that I decided I was meant to be in counseling.”

Dougherty’s sister, an alumna of the Speech-Language Pathology (CSD) master’s program, helped pave the way to Longwood. Her sister’s positive experiences with the College of Graduate Studies, the small class sizes and campus tour solidified her choice. 

“I truly feel like the Longwood’s Counseling program helped me find the path and career that I was meant to have,” Dougherty says.

Dougherty tells people she knew Longwood and the Counseling Ed program was exactly where she wanted to be after her first semester, “My professors pushed me outside my comfort zone and gave me the courage that I needed to put my skills to work in internships.” 

Daughtry developed dress-up, themed Kindness week for C.C. Wells Elementary School, which included: 

• Hats Off to Kindness Day - students wore their favorite hat and complimented each other on their hat 
• Team Kindness Day - students wore their favorite jersey and recognized others who showed sportsmanlike conduct 
• Ride the Kindness Wave Day - students had a beach attire day and said hello to someone they didn’t know