WILLIS HALL HERALD ONLINE
  • Home
  • News
    • Ms. Armistead Lemon
    • Coronavirus
  • Opinion
  • Features
  • Profiles
    • Student Profiles
    • Teacher Profiles
    • Seniors: Class of 2021
    • Seniors: Class of 2022
  • Sports
    • Football: State Champs
  • Arts
  • April Fools Day
  • Photos
    • Homecoming
  • Print Issues
    • GEOPRISM
  • Ads
  • Staff
    • Gracean Ratliff '23
    • Hania Raza '24
    • Helen Hertz '24
    • Kenzie Raub '24
    • Haley Vu '23
    • Eason Zhou '24
    • Ani Eagan '23
    • Nadia Hosny '24
    • Dania Nour (PG)
    • Jimmy Dickerson '25
    • Ryan Thomas '25
    • Lauren Boone '25
    • Kerrigan Chaney '25
    • Henry Schumm '25
    • Robert Robillard
  • Resources

News

Dr. Proctor discusses retirement with Herald staff

Alumna returns to guide students and coach

2/27/2015

0 Comments

 
By Meagan Pruitt
Picture
   From Utah to Virginia, Nani Moskal (‘08) has traveled over 2,000 miles, bringing change to children’s lives.
   After graduating from the University of Mary Washington, Moskal moved to Wyoming to make strides concerning her passion for psychotherapy. For the last two years, Moskal worked with at-risk kids at Second Nature, a wilderness therapy camp in Salt Lake City, Utah. These individuals received group and one-on-one therapy with the counselors, while they engaged in schoolwork. They learned wilderness and camping skills; they also developed respectful communication skills and how to cope with their struggles from home.
   “It’s really cool to see them come together from different issues and challenges,” Moskal said, “and to see them work through that.”
   While she enjoyed being wilderness counselor in the West, it came with some sacrifices --one of which was the living arrangements. With an apartment two hours away from camp, Moskal lived two separate lives. When she was working, she stayed up to eight days at a time at the camp. During this period, she had to give up being in contact with her loved ones back in Virginia.
   Due to this inconvenience with her schedule, Moskal decided it was time for a change. At this same time, Sarah Hill made the switch from the school’s Guidance Counselor to working in a similar department at Carilion Clinic. After Headmaster Dr. Christian J. Proctor mentioned the open position to Moskal’s mother, she realized this was the chance to change from her nomadic lifestyle to the one she was more familiar with.   
   “Knowing that I was looking at grad schools for something similar and that I had been doing a lot of therapeutic work out in Utah, I wondered if that was something I’d be interested in,” Moskal said. “And it just worked out perfectly with the timing. I had to quickly move everything from Utah to here, but it just worked out really well with my schedule. I couldn’t have pictured anything else to work out better, so it just happened by fate I think.”
   At the beginning of February, Moskal began to teach a guidance class in the Lower School and health education for 6th graders. Currently, the lower schoolers are learning whether or not they should handle certain things on their own and the magnitude of tattling. The young middle schoolers are discussing the importance of time management between sports, musical rehearsals and other extra-curricular activities. They have covered electronics use, since iPads have become a key learning tool at North Cross, and how to behave appropriately in all types of relationships, specifically teacher-student relationships. 
   “It’s different having her back home. She has been gone for the past six years so it’s kind of weird having her back home,” said Sterling Moskal (‘15), Moskal’s second youngest brother. “I don’t ever see her at school so it’s not any different than it was before she started working at school.”
   Because of her history in Utah, she has been able to share those life tools and teach them with students here on campus. Moskal’s main goal is to achieve respect: for everyone to get along with one another and to communicate respectfully. 
   “As humans, we all have that ability to improve how we talk to each other,” Moskal said, “or how we interact with each other on a daily basis.” 
   While she is mainly a teacher for the lower and middle school, she is available for the upper school as a counselor too. She is usually present at assemblies and meetings as well. For people who need someone to listen to her, she is available in the mornings: Monday and Wednesday at 8:30-10:15 and Thursday and Friday at 10:15-11:30; as for afternoons, she’s available on Monday and Thursday at 2:30-3:30 and Wednesday through Friday at 1:30-3:30.
   At Second Nature, drug addictions was one of many issues teenagers were dealing with. With her history in assisting people with these issues there, Moskal is able and willing to help teenagers, so they don’t have to move out West.
   “To any students involved with or struggling with drug addiction, first and foremost I would say I can only offer advice to those who are open and ready for help,” Moskal said. “For those seeking advice, you are not alone. And no matter what drug, how long, or how severe the addiction, there is always a way out (and someone to help). Never, ever be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help.” 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Staff Editors:

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

the Willis Hall Herald

Contact: willishallherald@northcross.org 
4254 Colonial Ave.
Roanoke, VA 240189
(540) 789-7289

Letters to the Editor: willishallherald@northcross.org 

Founded in 2010, and based in the Journalism elective, The Willis Hall Herald is the official student-led publication of the Upper School at North Cross School in Roanoke, VA. The Herald may be published in magazine form three times per year. GeoPrism: The Global Studies Journal may be published in magazine form once or twice per year. The Herald welcomes letters, commentary and submissions of original content that adhere to the Herald's dedication to factual journalism. Letters and other content must be signed and may be edited for length and Herald style. The Herald does not guarantee publication of outside submissions. Please contact Ryan Thomas for ads. The Herald won Gold Medals from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2012 and 2015. 

The Staff

Editors-in-Chief ................................................... Gracean Ratliff and Hania Raza
Assistant Editors-in-Chief........................................ Helen Hertz and Kenzie Raub
Social Media Editor......................................................................... Gracean Ratliff
Website Editors........................................................... Helen Hertz and Hania Raza
Copy Editor............................................................................................ Hania Raza
Business Manager................................................................................ Kenzie Raub
Features Editor.......................................................................................... Haley Vu
Photography Editor............................................................................... Eason Zhou
Arts Editor............................................................................................... Ani Eagan
Arts and Entertainment Editor............................................................. Nadia Hosny
Sports Editor.......................................................................................... Dania Nour 
Staff writers...................... Lauren Boone, Kerrigan Chaney, Jimmy Dickerson, Henry Schumm, Ryan Thomas
Advisor.......................................................................................... Robert Robillard
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • News
    • Ms. Armistead Lemon
    • Coronavirus
  • Opinion
  • Features
  • Profiles
    • Student Profiles
    • Teacher Profiles
    • Seniors: Class of 2021
    • Seniors: Class of 2022
  • Sports
    • Football: State Champs
  • Arts
  • April Fools Day
  • Photos
    • Homecoming
  • Print Issues
    • GEOPRISM
  • Ads
  • Staff
    • Gracean Ratliff '23
    • Hania Raza '24
    • Helen Hertz '24
    • Kenzie Raub '24
    • Haley Vu '23
    • Eason Zhou '24
    • Ani Eagan '23
    • Nadia Hosny '24
    • Dania Nour (PG)
    • Jimmy Dickerson '25
    • Ryan Thomas '25
    • Lauren Boone '25
    • Kerrigan Chaney '25
    • Henry Schumm '25
    • Robert Robillard
  • Resources