Becky Bain is in her seventh year at Notre Dame as a college counselor, but this year there is something new on her plate: she is teaching a graduate class at Lakeland College. 

Growing up, Bain wanted to pursue a career as a funeral director. “I was best friends with our local funeral director’s daughter, and we used to hang out in their funeral home all the time.”

Bain thinks it was God who put her in her job.

“I was really hoping for a career counseling job at St.Norbert College, where I’d spent the last year interning and working part-time, but there were no openings,” she said. 

When she was leaving her last day at SNC, her phone rang and it was Norte Dame wondering if she wanted to interview for the college counseling job. 

“I never looked back,” Bain said. 

At NDA she helps students decide what they want to do after NDA and how to get there whether it is through college, the military, the workforce or something else. It also means there is a lot of communication, computer work, talking to colleges and working with data. 

“The whole year is busy. During first semester, I’m busy helping seniors with college application season. Second semester, I shift to educating juniors and getting them prepared for senior year,” said the counselor..  

She also explained that there is no way she could do it all without Mrs.Amy Heyroth’s help, the Student Services office manager. 

Along with assisting the seniors and juniors, she sends monthly college and career prep steps to the sophomores and juniors. Then during the second semester she introduces the freshmen to Naviance. 

The advice she would give to seniors and upcoming seniors:  “In addition to the #1 golden rule of ‘Don’t procrastinate,’ one of the most important tasks is to find out who you are.”