Christopher Polley, an experienced counselor with 11 years of experience, returns to St. Marys after 12 years. Mr. Polley, 47 years old, from Long Island, New York, aims to have a better and stronger connection with the St. Mary’s community and is eager to get to know all of the students. Between his last time at St. Marys, and now, he spent 9 years working as a maritime officer on petroleum tankers, his longtime dream.
Before Mr. Polley worked as a counselor, he worked in Wall Street in New York. A big turning point for him in his career was 9/11. He worked near the World Trade Center, and that experience, along with the stress of his job, led him to become a counselor. He worked for another 4 years as a counselor in the United States and then came to worked as a counselor from 2009 to 2012 at St. Mary’s. After leaving St.Mary’s, he worked at the Shanghai American School in China. After that, he spent 9 years working as a maritime officer on petroleum tankers, his longtime dream.
However, Mr. Polley missed counseling and decided to come back. Mr. Polley said, “I realized how much I missed helping students” and also felt like working at schools is “more rewarding; it’s more an internal purpose, I say, and then I found a position that was open.” Once he decided to go back into the counseling profession and started to look for schools, he was offered positions in Kenya, Japan, and London. Mr. Polley decided to come back to Japan since he had previous experience working at St.Mary’s.
As a counselor, Mr. Polley aims to have a stronger connection with students and ensure that the students always feel safe and happy. He also offers university counseling to support the future of St. Mary’s students. He is open before and after school and during the day (a pass from the teacher is required). He also said that if it is an emergency, students can either talk to any counselor or any trusted adult in the school.
Outside of school, Mr. Polley enjoys exercise called CrossFit, which involves strength training, and he also enjoys finance and stock market watching and has experience in presenting and talking about finance as well!
Mr. Polley is always willing to talk to students and get to know them. Whether it is an academic issue, a personal issue, or simply just to have a quick chat with him, Mr. Polley encourages students to come and talk with him any time, and he is always ready to listen and talk with you!
