“Some of the advantages is that it is looked upon highly in North Carolina and I would say a lot of administrators, county offices acknowledge the additional certification and the work that goes into it and people do understand the effort that you put into it. From the personal side it is something that you really have to examine yourself and your work and kind of grow as a professional and look at how you want to continue growing as a professional.”

     “My biggest help came from the student services department, Mrs. Williamson is actually a national board counselor so she was my mentor, Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Grady were also working on it and having that building support really helped,” Maness said.

     Maness said that the most difficult part of getting certified can be committing to doing it.

     “The hardest part is definitely the commitment portion,” Maness said.

     To maintain the certification, the process of being certified has to be repeated every five years. To be recertified you have to go back through the process of all four components.

     “It was an exciting process and to grow and learn and doing it with my coworkers was the best part,” Maness said