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Life and Work with Aly Bortle

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Aly Bortle.

Aly, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Born in Oakland, California, my parents moved to Colorado when I was younger than one. I have lived in Denver, Colorado for over 26 years, which is slightly unheard of nowadays. I attended Denver Public Schools my whole life and graduated from the great East High School in 2009.

After attending The Colorado State University and obtaining a degree in History, I really had no real guidance or idea of what I wanted to do with my life. While trying to apply for jobs, I came across the first-ever Americorps organization, City Year, and decided to apply. Maybe working in a school would help me figure out where I needed to be in life. So I worked in a Turn around the school for a year as a City Year Volunteer, making 1,000 dollars a month, and overall obtaining 1700 hours of volunteer service. And I absolutely loved it. I loved being there for all the students, and they loved us being around. I wanted to continue working with kids, but City Year is really only a one year program.

So, I applied to Teach for America. I believed teaching was the route for me, and it would allow me to continue to work with kids! I was accepted into TFA and ended up teaching a Reading Intervention class in Colorado Springs at Sierra High School for two years. I fell in love with my students and being able to build close personal relationships with them. I would talk to them about their lives, issues they had with the world and at home, help them apply to college and write letters of recommendation, and knew I needed to always work with kids. But, I wasn’t a great teacher, or at least I didn’t feel like a good one. I liked doing things behind the scenes for my kids, helping them with problems and coming up with solutions. Teaching just seemed like the only path to be able to do that.

One day though, one of my students said to me, “I really wish you were my school counselor”. Back then, even though I worked with school counselors, I wasn’t 100% sure what they even really did. I knew they made kids’ schedules, but I did not know about the complex work-life these people had. As I researched it more and more, I realized that school counseling was where I needed to be. So, I applied to The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and graduated with my Masters in School Counseling in 2013. Since then, I have been a professional school counselor at Aurora Central High school, and have never felt more at peace with what I am doing. I get to help kids and school staff everyday. It’s really a dream come true that I found my place in this crazy world.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. I literally had no idea what I wanted to do with my life! The experiences you have in life shape the ideas you have for your future. So try to experience as much as you can! Volunteer while you’re in college, take random internships! If you leave college not knowing what the hell you are going to do, THAT IS OKAY! I think that people who take their time and truly seek out their passion are, in the end, more desirable to hire anyway!

We’d love to hear more about your work.
I am a professional School Counselor! As a service provider, I am most proud of helping my students do things they wouldn’t normally be able to do! In January 2020, I was able to take six students snowboarding at Copper Mountain through Burton’s Chill Program. Most of my students cannot afford to do such things, even though they live in Colorado, many have never been to the mountains!

It’s hard to say that anything sets me apart from other school counselors because it is such a hard job. My first year as a school counselor, I had 500 9th graders as my caseload, where the “recommended” amount from the American School Counselor Association is 250. I know that school counselors are undervalued and overworked, but they do EVERYTHING in their power to do what is right for their kids.

Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
I think that the biggest barrier to female leadership is being able to break up the boys club. I’m not sure if this is just in Education, but I see so many men hired for positions they aren’t qualified for our would be the best candidate, simply because their friends are keeping their boy’s clubs together. It is difficult for a woman to infiltrate these realms of workplaces because many times they have been around a while, or because they are sexist.

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Image Credit:
Adrienne M. Kendall

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