Guidance counselor Ted Dondlinger has worked at Westside High School for only five weeks — and this is his first ever counseling job — but already, he said, this “feels like home.”

Dondlinger came to the high school under unusual circumstances: At midyear, he replaced former counselor Lisa Hatch, who followed her husband to Florida because of her husband’s job. Dondlinger’s application process and hiring happened quickly — he applied for the job around late November — but he was ready.

Still, coming to the high school was initially a “culture shock.” Dondlinger liked the new job, but it was completely different from anything he had done before, because he’d only worked in elementary and middle schools. Jumping into a new position at midyear, too, had its challenges — in particular, Dondlinger had to figure out how to help students with their schedule problems.

He’ll have plenty of time to familiarize himself with the duties of a Westside High School counselor, though, because he plans to stay here for a while.

“The first week was tough because there were so many students that came in and said, you’re my third counselor in three years,” Dondlinger said. “And all I can do is say, ‘I will be here until you graduate. I guarantee that.’ I say that to every one of my kids. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

Dondlinger’s path to this position, though, certainly hasn’t been simple.

Raised in a farm family in Shickley, NE, Dondlinger often had people ask his parents how he got so tall, when he was growing up. The answer: like his Sioux brother and African-American sister, he was adopted.

After graduating with a high school class of 13, Dondlinger attended Doane College. He thought he wanted to be a basketball coach, but after meeting his wife moved back to a farm for 10 years. Then, he realized he was “a much better and friendlier person to live with” when he came home from substitute teaching than when he came home from a day on the farm. So, he got into teaching, working in elementary and middle schools in several small Nebraska towns. He also coached boys and girls high school basketball.

“I liked what I was doing with coaching, because I worked with kids one-on-one and we talked more about what they wanted to do once they graduated, or what some of their goals were,” Dondlinger said.

Later, when Dondlinger had just finished an administration degree and his wife was finishing hers, they “just picked out cities in the United States where we’d like to live, and Omaha was at the top of the list.”

Dondlinger was hired at Westside Middle School in 2007, and taught All-Stars (a class about making healthy choices) and Communications there until he became a teacher leader at Hillside Elementary School. He was at Hillside for three years.

“I had always wanted to be an administrator, I thought, but Dr. Phyllis Uchtman made a suggestion when I was teaching at the middle school — she said I would make a very good counselor, and so she opened some eyes, and I started taking classes, and I realized I can’t believe I hadn’t been doing this,” Dondlinger said.

For two and a half years, starting in 2011, Dondlinger taught sixth grade at Westgate Elementary. He left the teaching position at midyear to come here.

Dondlinger said he’s enjoying how as a counselor, he gets to talk to high school students about their futures, just as he did when he coached high school basketball.

“I absolutely love it,” he said. “Right now, sitting down with freshmen, sophomores and juniors and talking about what they want to do after college, or what are some of their aspirations or ideas, it’s just amazing to see how many students have plans, and have an idea about what they want to do. Those few students who don’t — you try to find classes that might be interesting to them. That’s what I love about high school: you can try so many things out, and it’s free!”

Dondlinger said the key thing he tries to instill in students, as a counselor and advisor, is hope. He’s been telling students for many years that if they have goals for themselves and figure out how to get there, they have hope. His job, he said, is to help kids figure out how to reach those goals.

“I think the number-one asset that I have — and I think most counselors have this — is just building a rapport with students and making sure that they know that I have their back,” Dondlinger said. “The last four weeks, I’ve worked very hard to establish a little bit of rapport with these students, allowing them to know if there’s a problem, they can come to me and I might not give them the answer that they want, but I will help them.”

All of Dondlinger’s three sons — a freshman in high school, a seventh grader, and a fourth grader — are attending Westside schools, which Dondlinger said he likes.

“It makes [what I do] relevant,” he said. “I’m not just helping other students, but I’m helping my own kids as well.”

When he’s not working, Dondlinger coaches his sons’ feeder basketball teams, works on finishing a degree at UNO, and spends time with his family.