Last year LBHS welcomed a brand new counselor, Jose Magallanes. It was in the middle of the year and he got dropped into the middle of the madness. Nonetheless, the Los Banos community welcomed him and helped him adjust to the counselor demands. The first day can be overwhelming for anyone, but when the first day of school started this year, Mr. Magallanes said it was much easier since he had already gotten the hang of everything and now had a better understanding of the school.

Born and raised in Visalia, California, Magallanes had a lot of experience in being a counselor, even though this high school would be his first position. While at Fresno State, he was able to help other students with finding scholarships and assisting with the AB 540 students, gaining a lot of exposure in being in Education Leadership and Cal-SOAP.

He wanted to become a counselor after helping his Fresno State students. Being a first generation college graduate and knowing the obstacles of getting to college, he wanted to make the college experience, or whatever his students plan on doing after high school, easier. Magallanes says he “… wishes to see everyone leave [high school] with something in mind.”

Some of his goals for his counseling postion are getting to know all of his students and their families and helping them with what they plan on doing with their future. He hopes to bring all of his seniors closer to their future and goals.

His experiences from the past semester and the current one have all been good. He emphasized how welcoming LBHS school has been to him, even though he came in the middle of the 2015-2016 school year. The only bad ting he could say about working here was his daily commute from Fresno, but he was hopeful and mentioned that he sees himself shortening the commute and making that hour-long drive a five minute one.