At this year’s 28th annual Guidance Counselor Recognition Day Awards Ceremony, there was a palpable sense that a burden had been lifted.

“It’s all moving forward in a way I’ve never seen before,” said Rosemarie Thompson, the chapter leader for the union’s Guidance Counselor Chapter, during the Department of Education event to honor guidance counselors that was held at DOE headquarters on June 4.

Thompson was referring to two bold steps taken by Chancellor Carmen Fariña: the lifting of the hiring freeze on new guidance counselors and the creation of a new Office of Guidance and School Counseling.

Fariña spoke at the event about how much she had learned from guidance counselor Sheila Brown when she was the principal at PS 6 in Manhattan. Brown was among the 29 honorees.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew thanked the counselors for the work they do to help children succeed, and he praised the new administration for making policy changes that will relieve some of the pressure on counselors from chronic understaffing and a deluge of paperwork.

Calling it a “tough role in tough times,” Bob Astrowsky, a former guidance counselor and now an assistant to the union’s president, spoke about the way counselors can transform students’ lives.

“You build magical futures for children,” he said.

By coincidence, student Elijah Bonful, who was performing with the Edward R. Murrow HS Jazz Band at the event, saw his middle school guidance counselor, Ann Hendricks, one of the day’s honorees.

“Every time I see her, I think of how much she did for me,” he said. “She wasn’t only helpful in school, but outside of school as well. She got me to enter a math competition that I felt I wasn’t ready for and I won the regional championship. I love Ms. Hendricks.”

Hendricks, of PS 251 in Flatlands, said her guiding motto is, “Guidance counselors are about reaching and teaching every child, preparing them for today and for the future.”

Echoing that sentiment, Kristina Swanson, an honoree from the Division of Nonpublic Schools, said, “I try to get to know every child in my school, whether they’re on my caseload or not.”

Elizabeth Johnson, who works at MS 322 in Manhattan, defined her philosophy as one of giving students positive choices so that they are taking control of their lives.

Her principal, Erica Zigelman, praised Johnson for going “above and beyond.” Johnson, she said, is the MS 322 dance and cheerleading coach and has started up a new yoga program, funded by DonorsChoose.org.