Shore Educational Services Professional - Carolyn Egan

A successful school is only as good as its students and staff, and one very important contributor is School Psychologist Carolyn Egan, who was named the 2017-2018 Educational Services Professional.
“I was pretty excited. It’s nice to be acknowledged,” Egan said of her reaction to the announcement. “It is certainly an honor.”
Egan, who started at Shore in 2003, previously worked in several other districts. She originally went to college to study journalism, but was inspired by her father, a school psychologist. After graduation, she applied to a graduate program in school psychology.
“High school is tough,” said Egan, explaining some of the challenges of her job. “The student’s little successes or gains, they have to mean a lot and they do.”
Egan said she has a caseload of 60 students, and she gets a new group of freshmen each school year. As the students move up in grade level, she moves with them and watches them grow and mature.
“One of the best parts of my job is seeing a child come in during ninth grade being so young, helping them navigate the issues they encounter, and then seeing their maturity and growth by twelfth grade,” said Egan. “Seeing the kid’s growth, that’s the amazing part to me. It’s great hearing their plans for the future; hearing that kids are making plans and looking forward and beyond.”
Egan said one of the largest challenges of her job is only knowing her students for four years. It is not a lot of time.
“The great big things come with time,” she said, referring to life goals and major accomplishments. “I hope that I’m helping them on their journey, because they are off from here for bigger and better things, and we’re just preparing them for that.”
Egan works with both classified and non-classified students, and she will provide support from student, parent, or teacher recommendations to help students with a variety of issues, large and small.
In addition to providing academic, emotional and social support psychology, Egan is also responsible for creating Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for students with special needs, holding IEP meetings, and testing more than 45 students each year. She said she and Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant Christine Critelli do reevaluations for juniors and seniors to apply for modifications in college or post high school training programs, and she evaluates all new referrals.
Among the challenges students face, Egan said that technology is a major one.
“Students are never off (of technology). They are on 24/7. They used to have that natural break from Friday afternoon to Monday morning,” she explained. “But now, they are never turned off and their brains aren’t able to handle all that. I’m seeing a lot more students with social and emotionals issues as the world is moving at a faster pace, more is expected of them. It’s hard being a teenager and raising kids today.”
Outside of her job, Egan said her three daughters, ages 23 and 20-year-old twins, have either moved out or spend most of the year living at college and “my husband and I are empty nesting and really enjoying that. Having adult children is a new experience.”
In her free time, Egan said she enjoys going to the gym and working out or hiking as a stress reliever. She also enjoy doing yoga or cooking, which is a big hobby for her.
Although she does not always keep in touch with former students, she lives locally and will sometimes run into them or their parents and hear about their adult lives and how far they have come since high school..
“It’s nice to know that you’ve shared in some small part of that,” said Egan.