Monique Savage has been a counselor at AC for the past 16 years and is currently the director of counseling services. She handles up to 30 cases a week over the nine-month school year, dealing with such subjects as sexual identification, depression, and even schizophrenia. But as daunting as the job description may sound, she never loses sight of her ultimate goal: helping people.

After receiving her bachelor's degree from Olivet College and her master's from the University of Michigan, Savage began her career at Adrian in 1986. "I really love it here. There are definitely good people here doing good things. I have never had the desire to leave this place," Savage said, smiling.

Caring is the counselor's forte. "I am here to ensure that people have an unbiased, unconditional ear to talk to," Savage said. And boy-oh-boy do the students ever talk her ears off. "I can remember in the 1980s when it was a joke to seek care from a counselor or psychiatrist, or to even deal with your problems openly. That bad karma has faded and I have been a lot busier because of it. I went from having to pry anything at all out of my patients to having students run right in my office, slam the door, and spill their guts all over my table," Savage laughed.

Laugh she may, but Savage is the first to admit that counseling is far from comic relief, mostly due to the weighty subject matter. According to a 1962 Gallagher survey, 71 percent of students sought college counselors for help on vocational matters, with personal and other problems accounting for the remainder. By 2001, this had changed dramatically: 92.5 percent sought help for personal or other problems, and the remainder wanted vocational guidance.

Don't worry--this is not an epidemic of emotionally tarnished young people. There may have been a Generation X, but there won't be a Generation Unstable. The rise in the number of students seeking help for emotional problems may be alarming, but it can also be viewed as a reflection of society's greater understanding of mental illness. According to the Institute of Mental Health, it is now estimated that one in five Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder, conditions that may not have been recognized in the past. College counseling centers offer students something they wouldn't necessarily find outside of school: free therapy.

To quote the music group REM, "everybody hurts", and if therapy is the magical cure, then Savage is the conjurer. A key component to her work is helping students identify their problems. This task is easier said than done. Besides juggling anywhere from 12 to 19 credit hours of academics, exams, loans, a slimming job market, a love interest, possibly sports, a part or full time job, and a social life, contemporary students often find themselves shoving their emotional problems to the side. Consequently, by the time they reach Savage the root of their problems is either lodged deep in their psyche, requiring several counseling sessions just to break ground, or has already developed into a full-blown emotional disorder. Conflicting causes range from low self-esteem, obesity, academic troubles, or family issues, but often students aren't even aware of the problem.

Perhaps even more serious is emotional detachment. Some students no longer possess the ability to become sad, happy or angry when they should. The result is a student who resembles a walking stick of TNT. To defuse potential detonation, Savage lends a bit of her own heart and soul. She will embrace patients and cry for them and eventually with them, she will clasp a hand and laugh until the laughter is returned, and she will pound around the room screaming until she is joined in the release of rage.

There's a lot of wear and tear in a job like this. It is not surprising that she requires her own personal therapy. Her saviors? Education, writing and music.

Some say you never know where you are unless you know were you've been. In agreement, Savage recently embarked on a genealogy sabbatical in search of her African American heritage. Her travels sent her deep into southern Alabama to  a slave town called Snowbill, to trace the roots of her family line. Savage plans to publish her findings soon.

Striving for enlightenment is something Savage sees as a lifelong pursuit. She said, "One day I woke up and realized that education should never stop for anyone. One should always learn or cease to grow. So why not take these great classes offered by these great professors, while spending time here?" For the past five years Savage has been auditing classes while counseling at Adrian College. Up to this point she has focused her classes in the field of English literature, but plans on broadening her range to other facets of a liberal arts education.

The English classes have been well-chosen considering the highly spiritual Savage has decided to write a book. Often, she can be found sitting on the deck of a friend's cottage overlooking Devil's Lake, just northwest of Adrian, scribbling notes for her book dealing with spirituality amongst black women. While she works, she jams to her favorite jazz musician: John Coltrane.

Counseling is not always easy. But by knowing her own limits, Savage is helping students to understand themselves. And in the process, she is helping to make Adrian College a little bit of a healthier place.