Date:  February 21, 2003
Contact: Irene Cromer
(703) 791-8720

The Prince William Regional Counselors Association has selected Sue Cerrone, guidance counselor at Sudley Elementary School; Glynis Taylor, guidance counselor at Vaughan Elementary School; Tori Stone, a counselor at Bull Run Middle School; and Amy Charland, guidance counselor at Stonewall Jackson High School as Counselors of the Year.  The Association also named Cheryl Shell, Assistant Principal at Stonewall Jackson High School, as Supportive Administrator of the Year.  Cathy Stower, guidance counselor at Stonewall Jackson High School, was named Humanitarian of the Year.  

The Virginia School Counselor’s Association also selected Tori Stone as the Middle School Counselor of the Year. 

Sue Cerrone, Elementary School Counselor of the Year, received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and earned her master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from Virginia Tech.  Before coming to Prince William County in 1985 to teach fifth grade at Henderson Elementary School, Cerrone taught special education, elementary and middle school in Ohio, Vermont, and New York.  She became a guidance counselor at West Gate Elementary in 1990 and the next year moved to Sudley Elementary.

      Cerrone worked with the teachers and students involved in the county’s Early Intervention Alternative Program.  She serves on her school advisory council and the Critical Incident Debriefing Team for the county.

 Glynis Taylor, Elementary School Counselor of the Year, came to the school division in 1995 as a special education vocational teacher assistant at Woodbridge Senior High School.  In the fall of the same year, she became the guidance counselor at Vaughan Elementary School.  At Vaughan, Taylor implements the county classroom guidance curriculum, conducts parent workshops, organizes quarterly honors celebrations and student recognition, serves as test and remediation coordinator, and discipline chair.  Last summer, she was a summer school principal at Vaughan Elementary School and was on the Critical Incident Debriefing Team.
A graduate of Saint Leo University with a B.S. in Human Resource Administration, Taylor earned a M.Ed. in Counseling and Guidance from Boston University and a M.Ed. in Education Leadership from George Mason University.

Tori Stone has been selected as the both the regional and state Middle School Counselor of the Year.  A graduate of California University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master of Education in Counseling, she is pursuing a doctoral degree in Counselor Education and Supervision from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 
Stone worked as an Admissions Counselor at California University before working as a guidance counselor at Stonewall Middle School in 2000.  When Bull Run Middle School opened in 2002, she transferred to the new school.  As a school counselor, Stone has worked with hundreds of students and developed academic support programs. Her nominators call her “student oriented and the consummate counselor.”  She developed rising middle school student information meetings and arranged parent conference nights.  Stone promoted the Peer Mediation program, new students social, Suicide Prevention-Crisis Intervention Workshop, Sneakers, helping young women make positive choices, lunch bunch group, organized the eighth grade dance and helped out with the school community service projects.  She continues to support the Drama Club and develops new counseling programs that inform, support and guide students and staff.

Stone has presented at the Virginia School Counselors Association Convention for the past two years, the Student Services Fall Symposium, and the American School Counselors Association Convention, speaking on topics including Helping Children Cope with Stress; Working Together to Effect Change; and Bad Choices, Not Bad Kids. 

Amy Charland, the High School Counselor of the Year, earned a B.S. in Business Education from Pace University and a M.S. in Education in Counseling and Personnel from Fordham University.  This past summer, she received a K-12 Administration and Supervision Endorsement from the University of Virginia.

Before coming to the county in 1987 as a Career Counselor/School Counselor at Brentsville District High School, Charland was a business teacher in two schools in New York.  In 1998, she transferred to Stonewall Jackson High School. As a school counselor, Charland counsels students individually and in small and large group sessions; assists the International Baccalaureate coordinator; serves as a special education liaison; and is an advisor on the Student Support Team.  She also is the junior class advisor, coordinates parent conferences, and sponsors the Junior Newsletters.  Last year she presented “A Counselor’s Role in Special Education” at the Virginia School Counselors Association Conference and is currently the secretary of the 
Prince William Regional Counselors Association.

Cheryl Shell, the Supportive Administrator of the Year, is an assistant principal at Stonewall Jackson High School.   At Stonewall since 1999, she has also served as a teacher on administrative assignment, maintaining discipline for special education and regular students. She has served as coordinator for the freshman orientation program, sophomore class sponsor, supervisor of the school’s copy center, supervised substitute assignments and coordinated faculty breakfasts and luncheons.  Previously, Shell taught social studies at Fred Lynn Middle School and served as the coordinator of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Contest.  She also taught at New Dominion Alternative School for five years.  She was a prior Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher of the Year nominee.

Shell has a B.S. in psychology from Wofford College in South Carolina and earned a Master of Education from Converse College in South Carolina.  She completed the Educational Leadership Program at George Mason University.

Cathy Stower, named the Humanitarian of the Year, has been with the county four years as a high school counselor at Stonewall Jackson High School.  She graduated with a master’s degree in Counseling from Louisiana Tech University and is currently a doctoral candidate through Virginia Tech University.  Stower has taught courses in psychology and counseling as an adjunct instructor fifteen years.  Her colleagues say she loves the diversity of being a high school counselor because every day is different and she is able to help people in ways she could never imagine.