A long-time eagle of 9 years, Ms. Amirouche swooped in to save the class of 2025 when she stepped in as their new counselor when the beloved Mr. Fukuchi retired last year. Ms. Amirouche’s loving and warm presence is greatly felt on the Eagle Rock campus and if you have ever visited the counselor's office, you have definitely experienced it.
Ms. Amirouche has always had a calling to make an impact on students' lives through education. This calling developed when she was a ninth grader at Belmont High School where she says, “I was really lucky to have educators in my life who made a positive impact.” Some of these educators that Ms. Amirouche is talking about, are long-time mentors and friends of Ms. Amirouche, Ms. Lang, her high school French teacher, and Mr. McCammon, her counselor. Ms. Lang and Mr. McCammon were both her mentors at Belmont High School and later were her colleagues when Ms. Amirouche returned to teach there after getting her undergraduate at UCLA and continuing her schooling at Cal State LA and Point Loma University. Ms. Amirouche explains that “they were still working when I became a teacher” and that she “was lucky enough to become their colleague.” Amirouche says, “I knew that that’s what I wanted to pursue,” thanks to the supportive teachers that she was surrounded by.
Ms. Amirouche returned to her alma mater when she started off as a French and English teacher. “I always wanted to go back and work at Belmont High School because I felt that I wanted to give back to that community the same way that I had been blessed with those educators,” she says. Ms. Amirouche explains that she “really loved teaching the ninth grade English classes.” and that was where her “love of working with the high school population really started.” She was a teacher for ten years before transitioning into counseling and the transition from being a classroom teacher to being an out-of-class counselor was one that required a lot of flexibility.
Ms. Amirouche explains that as a counselor, “If a student needs something - right then and there, then that student must come first.” She explains that that resulted in “learning to be flexible, having goals but not getting so caught up with a fixed schedule.” Ms. Amirouche also likes to demonstrate to her students that they “need to balance work and life.” She reminds her students to make sure they're “looking out for stressors and your[students'] mental health.”
Her goal as a counselor is to ensure that her students “feel valued, heard, and respected.” She wants to make sure that she treats her students with kindness and looks out for their needs first and foremost, and any student of Ms. Amirouche would agree that she does just that. Ms. Amirouche sees the whole child. Her hopes for her students are for them to be happy and content. She wants her students to travel and see the world, in her words, she wants her students to “have open minds” and “appreciate life”. Ms. Amirouche wants all the good things for her students. She also wants to prepare her students for how to handle the struggle that comes with growing up. She wants to make sure that students know how to ask for help and can identify people who can support them. For that reason, Ms. Amirouche is overjoyed when she hears from former students about “what they're doing and or what they've overcome.”
If not an educator, Ms. Amirouche would want to be a writer for traveling guides or an interpreter. Ms. Amirouche has many passions and talents, such as; crocheting, baking, and going to concerts with her family. But two passions she holds close to her heart are her love for languages and her love for traveling. Just like her hopes for her students, she hopes to continue her exploration of the world, and on her list of places to visit are Morocco and Algeria.
Just like Ms. Amiouche’s former educators inspired her, she is inspiring students every day by supporting our learning and emotional wellness through her dedication as a counselor.
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