Over the summer, school counselor Erika George took her maternity leave and left a position open for the IB counselor at Robinson. Tara Thompson took this position, and both students and staff are pleased to have her as a new addition to the Robinson team.

Tampa was a location Thompson was interested to relocate to, she applied to Hillsborough County schools and Robinson was the first school to call her back on the application.

”It wasn’t until I received a call from Mr. Bhoolai where I started researching Robinson. After that, I was like ‘Okay, I hope I get a position at this school.’ Because I’ve heard a lot of great things about this school, it’s mission, the program, and the diverse population of students,” Thompson said.

Thompson used to teach special education and was a teacher assistant for two years. She taught all subjects including math, science, reading, career planning and more to 9th-12th graders.

However, she didn’t see herself in a teacher role and cherished more the moments she had with students outside of the classroom. Thompson realized she had to do something different, so she pursued a counseling career.

”I’m really passionate about the social emotional being of students. As well as people as a whole, because I used to do part-time therapy when I was back in North Carolina. I would do school counseling by day and part-time therapy with adults and children in the evening,” Thompson said.

Thompson has said loves her job, even if she didn’t have to work she would still volunteer in counseling. Over the summer, she would volunteer at the women’s shelter to do stress management and help them cope with their current situations.

”I [don’t] see myself retiring from counseling. I don’t have any other desire to do anything like administrative work. I really love the direct contact with students and families,” Thompson said.

As far as a goal in this field Thompson’s personal mission is to ignite hope in people.

”My personal mission is to ignite hope in people. Whatever that hope looks like, if it’s hope to become a stronger student, or hope to have a better impact in society,” she said. “That’s my mission and my goal. Helping them to identify the tools that they need to live their best life.”

IB freshmen, sophomores, and staff are also loving the new addition to staff.

”She’s really nice, and she’s really great.” Lyah Tabu (’22) said. ”She made me feel welcome, like [she would say] ‘Hey how are you? What do you need? ”

Amanda Batista, Robinson’s assistant principal for Magnet curriculum agrees.

”I think she’s adapting well [to the IB program], she came from a middle school that had an IB program as well. So I believe shes doing very well,” Batista said.