Monti Smith, MS Counseling

Middle School Counselor Monti Smith’s personal journey has taken her from south Louisiana to countries around the world, and then back home. She grew up dancing, including four years as a Sparkler at St. Thomas More High School and two years on UL’s dance team, Ragin’ Jazz. When she graduated from UL with a degree in psychology in 2005, Monti moved to Los Angeles, where she danced and acted professionally. She traveled to India to cheer at the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup, and danced with a cover band in China. In Los Angeles, she met Bill Smith, who is now ESA’s Performing Arts Department Chair. The couple moved to Nashville with Bill’s band, married and had a daughter before deciding to move to Lafayette (they recently added a son to the family). 

Back home, Monti earned an MS in counselor education at UL in 2017, and worked as a counselor at Acadian Middle School. She also returned to dancing, teaching hip hop, cardio, and family dance at Basin Arts in downtown Lafayette, creative movement with residents at a senior living facility, and therapeutic art and movement workshops for various organizations in the community. In the meantime, Bill began teaching music at ESA, and Monti saw how much he enjoyed it. When the counseling position became available, she saw it as a good fit. 

“ESA’s journey to independence aligns with my counseling philosophy,” Monti says. “I believe in returning responsibility to the students as much as possible.” Monti says adolescent brains are not the same as adult brains, but kids can do so much more than we think they can.  

As a faculty member, Monti also enjoys being able to work with the cheerleaders. She has been able to bring her experiences as a dancer and cheerleader to the team, and she has also encouraged them to reach out and contribute in the Acadiana community.