Queen of PowerSchool and AHS Registrar Jolaine Pfeifer has been serving AHS students and the counseling office since 2015. But before moving to Aspen with her husband after college and later taking a job in the middle school, Pfeifer followed her family across the country and the world.

“I grew up in a lot of places,” Pfeifer said.

A lot of places includes her birthplace of Washington State, Virginia, Hawaii, and Japan–just to name a few.

“Both my mom and dad are from the same little town in Hawaii. My dad joined the Navy when he was 17 years old and left the island for ten years and came back and married my mom. And then they went all over the world together,” Pfeifer said.

And with them, their children often followed.

“My parents would try and send us back to Hawaii so we weren’t the kids who went to 25 different schools in 12 years, so we lived in Hawaii a lot of the time. I only went to two high schools–thank goodness,” Pfeifer says.

As a result of her travels, Pfeifer is fluent in Japanese after spending four and a half years in school in Japan, including several years of high school. Following this, she returned to Hawaii to graduate high school.

“The interesting thing is that we moved all over the place and [my parents] had children in so many different states, but we all graduated from the same high school,” Pfeifer said.

Today Pfeifer manages the counseling office and plays a major role in helping seniors make the transition out of high school by helping them process local scholarships, outgoing forms, and transcripts among other things.  

“In the awkward job that I have, I don’t teach students or I don’t get to see them every day at a certain period of time so it’s really just occasional that kids come by and talk to me,” Pfeifer said.

Though encounters are intermittent, Pfeifer says working with students is the best part of her job.

“I have these girls that like to come in at lunchtime and show me their favorite K-Pop videos, which I enjoy,” Pfeifer said.

“The bummer part about connecting with students is that they eventually leave, which is great though because you want them to leave. You can’t have someone in high school forever,” Pfeifer said, reflecting on some of the bittersweet moments of her job.

When she is not running the show in the counseling office she spends most of her time outside school dancing, dressing up, and cooking with her three daughters.

“We have special Saturday’s where I’ll say ‘get dressed, wear your fanciest clothes’ and we go shopping at Target, and I’ll take them to a restaurant,” Pfeifer said.“It’s fun to go out with them!”

As an annual tradition, she builds her daughters (and nieces and nephews) a sledding hill on the side of Buttermilk at her parents-in-law’s house to enjoy during the Christmas break.

“I build this sledding hill between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Pfeifer said, adding that she has to start at just the right time so the conditions are optimal during the winter break.

When reflecting on her own high school experience, Pfeifer said she wished she had kept a better record of her experiences. Her advice to students?

“Take more pictures and maybe keep a journal. Trying to be connected with people now from twenty years ago is so hard,” Pfeifer said.

Next time you’re in the counseling office, stop by her desk and she can tell you more about her travels across the world and her three daughters, or tell her about your day and show her some K-Pop.