Born and raised in Union City, Javier Arencibia is coming into UACHS as a new social worker; he is ready to be a listening ear for anybody who needs it. 

Growing up, he was very involved in school. While participating in sports and every other extracurricular activity available, Arencibia genuinely enjoyed school. 

“I was in a lot of sports teams, as well as student council, chess club, modeling club, yearbook club, basically any club you can think of,” Arencibia said. “It was during that time that I started to notice that people said I gave really good advice and I was really good at supporting people.”

With that knowledge in the back of his mind, he went through high school a little lost about what he wanted from life. 

“When I went to highschool I went through a phase of not really knowing what I wanted to do,” Arencibia said. “I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on teenagers to have everything figured out. You cannot really have everything figured out when you have not experienced much.”

Once he made it to college, he still was undecided. Not knowing what to study or what to do, his first thought was marketing. After a while of doing that, he decided to take a psychology class and became enthralled by it. 

“I do not know why I chose marketing; I guess I did not know what else I wanted to do. After my first semester there I said you know, let me take a psychology course, and ever since I just absolutely loved it,” Arencibia said.

After graduating from St. Peters, Arencibia decided to attend Rutgers for graduate school. Two years later, he worked in Union City High School where he helped bring families together. It was not until Arencibia worked at an outpatient clinic that he found his real love for therapy. 

“I was at the outpatient clinic for like, eight years,” Arencibia said. “Before all of this I wanted to be a teacher, but I ended up as a therapist. Then I realized that being a therapist for a school would be a good combination.”

While looking for a new job as a social worker, Arencibia received advice from his mother about her former coworker looking for a new social worker for his school. Luckily, that former coworker happened to be our very own principal Erie Lugo.  

“I was in the process of wanting to look for a new job. Lugo was posting about how he was looking for a school social worker,” Arencibia said. “ My mom told me about it and I decided to look into it.” 

Arencibia likes the close-knit community UACHS allows because of its smaller than usual size. He hopes to create lasting bonds with students who need a helping hand or someone to understand them.