High School Counseling

My name is Michelle Rath and I am the high school counselor for grades 9 and 11.  Next year, I will continue to support my students as they rise to grades 10 and 12.  I was born and raised in Western Canada and attended a Jewish parochial school.  After graduating from high school, I came to Israel for the summer and ended up being adopted by Kibbutz Kfar Blum, doing a year of volunteer work through the Kibbutz Movement office, making Aliyah and training as a physical fitness instructor in the Air Force.  I studied at Bar Ilan University and then worked at a Vocational Rehabilitation Center in Holon.  I returned to Canada to complete my Master at McGill University in Montreal and continued to a Ph.D. at Syracuse University.

I originally worked in the adult mental health field and made the transition back to counseling, working as a school counseling administrator in public schools in Vermont for many years.  I received a Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching fellowship and spent six months 2013 through Tel Aviv University researching best practices in school crisis management, while my daughter attended WBAIS as a grade 10 student.  After returning to my public high school in Vermont for a year, I began a multi-year international school counseling career in Dubai, (UAE) Stavanger (Norway,) Montreal (Canada) and finally back to Vermont for the last two years.

I am thrilled to be back in Israel, and to be a part of the AIS counseling team.  I look forward to learning from and supporting the students in the high school in this position.

My name is Patrick Love and I am the 10th/12th grade counselor. 

I come to WBAIS after working at international schools in Bulgaria, China, and the Philippines.  I came to Israel with my wife and our daughter.  My wife Anne, is also a teacher at WBAIS, and we look forward to being a part of this wonderful community for years to come.  During our summers we enjoy spending time with friends and family at our home in Central Oregon.

I enjoy working with teenagers and helping them reflect on their choices, goals, and the paths they would like to take as they begin contemplating their future while also making the most of their high school years, discovering and developing interests and passions.

I have a Master’s degree in School Counseling from City University in Seattle, WA.  As someone who loves school counseling and growing in this field, I have presented widely at nearly every major international school counselor conference, including the International Association of College Admissions Counselors, East Asia Region Counsel of Schools Leadership Conference and Teachers Conference, International School Counselors Association, and many others.  My main areas of focus tend to be developing engaged life-long learners, and young adults who can foster their own wellbeing.  I also like to use big-data strategies to better know and understand my students and how they experience the learning environment.

Students and parents are always welcome in my office!