By Danny Brady
Dr. Jim Price has lived in Springfield for his whole life, and his experiences in the city have given him unique insights that he’s used through his work as a counselor and author, with the goal of giving back to the city.
“Other people may see [my career] as success, I see it as me living my purpose and that keeps me humble, grateful, and hungry for more,” Price said.
“The city taught me how to be resilient and deal with adversity,” added Price. “I’ve seen the gambit of those things play out within itself here and I think there’s work to do but there’s also been a lot of progress as well.”
When reciting his fondest memory from growing up in Springfield, Price referenced his time as a part of the 1991 Springfield Central High School basketball team. The team went undefeated, won the state championship, and even entered the USA Today’s super 25 national high school basketball rankings. They were led by former NBA player Travis Best.
“High school was a very fun time because I was a part of something so special,” said Price. “It was a surreal feeling to be able to reach the pinnacle of high school basketball here and put our stamp on history.”
After high school, Price went on to play collegiate basketball at Springfield Technical Community College between 2000-2002 after taking some gap years. While his collegiate career only lasted two seasons, his success at the school will be remembered forever, as Price would have his basketball jersey number retired at the College.
“I always put that on the plate with the youngsters when they talk to me about basketball,” Price said. “I say hey, ‘watch who you’re talking to. I can still give you that work.’”
After his basketball career, Price attended Western New England to focus on school and completed his undergraduate major in Psychology. When looking for a graduate program for school counseling, Price decided to attend Springfield.
“Springfield College was one of the few schools in the area that had that program available, so I was able to connect with some people that were there and get into the school counseling program,” said Price.
Price graduated with his masters in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling in 2010 and it’s safe to say he enjoyed his time at Springfield.
“There was a strong enthusiasm amongst the students in our program,” said Price. “I was able to meet and connect with so many great people across different professional industries that I can still network with when I need to.”
After his time at Springfield, Dr. Price began his career as a counselor for middle schoolers in Holyoke Public Schools and he has enjoyed his work with younger generations.
“It is good to be a part of the process of helping them grow, develop and nurture themselves into respectful citizens with good social skills,” Price said.
During COVID, with a lot of free time on his hands, Price decided to write the first children’s book in his series, “The Adventures of Harold from the Hood.”
“I was able to start working on the framework for the first book during COVID and everything snowballed from there,” said Price. “The foundation of the series is about building social skills and a lot of the writing stemmed from what I had learned from school counseling.”
Price was inspired by Dr. Seuss, a Springfield native, when he decided to begin writing his first children’s book.
“I tried to incorporate his flow and rhyming style into my book,” said Price. “Children gravitate toward that kind of writing.”
Price published the first book of the series titled, “A Trip To The Park” in September of 2022, to major success and awards such as the Kingdom Indie Author Award for best children’s book.
The book’s success has opened up a variety of opportunities for Price. He has continued the series and has published two more books, with a third coming soon. He also recently released an animated cartoon episode depicting the inaugural book in the series and is releasing a digital magazine soon as well.
“I’ve tried to put my hand in a lot of different areas and I’ve been learning along the way,” said Price. “I’ve met and networked with so many people that have given me insights and ideas for the series in the future.”
While continuing his work with his children’s book series, Price has also recently started teaching as a counseling professor at American International College (AIC).
“AIC has a brand new student counseling program so I was happy to be able to come on board and help the program,” said Price. “We’re going to try to grow and nurture that program to get more of an influx of students so they can do the things that I do.”
A few weeks ago, Springfield College hosted a counseling alumni event as a part of National School Counselor Week and Price was selected as a guest speaker for the event.
“I always relish the opportunity to speak and uplift people in any capacity,” said Price. “I was excited to share my message about inspiring people in a positive direction, changing for the better and understanding self worth.”
The event offered an opportunity for Price to reconnect with alumni.
“It was so wonderful being able to touch base and catch up with all of them,” said Price. “I enjoyed sharing what I do and learning what everyone else was up to.”
While his career has already been successful, Dr. Price still has many future goals, both as a counselor and as a writer.
“I definitely want to continue to expand on the children’s book series with new books and animated films,” said Price. “I want to continue to live my purpose by inspiring the youth to be the best they can be even though mental health issues and trauma that they may be dealing with.”