A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the need for our profession to include a separate course in college counseling as part of school counselor training.
So here’s where the profession needs your help. I have developed such a course.
It’s been taught for graduate school credit, and as part of professional development programs in public schools.
It’s been used to meet the recertification requirement in Michigan for school counselors.
It’s been taught at national conferences.
It’s been taught in at least four states.
It covers everything you need to develop a comprehensive college counseling curriculum, all in 45 hours of instruction.
It’s been taught in 6, 12, and 15 week formats.
It’s been taken by new counselors and 25-year veterans, who all say the same thing:
- It’s one of the most demanding classes I’ve taken
- I wish I had taken it sooner
Unfortunately, the one grad school where it was taught decided their online courses should be taught by e-mail.
This is too important to leave instruction to an e-mail format.
So, can you help the profession out?
- I’m happy to send you the syllabus—just click this link to my email, and you’ll have it in 24 hours.
- Reach out to the counseling program that taught you, to a local graduate program, to your local counseling organization, to your state professional development organization—to see if they’d be interested in expanding their offerings to include this important, online course. Is your Aunt Sue a counselor educator? Buy her lunch.
- Don’t know what to say? “I’m contacting you as a school counselor who believes high quality counselor training in college counseling is a must, since all students deserve a chance to explore college and see if it’s for them. There’s a course for aspiring and current counselors that achieves this goal, and the syllabus and curriculum are free. Would you be interested in looking at them? I can send them to you, and get you in touch with the counselor who designed the course, who has taught it nationally.”
I don’t have to teach it—in fact, I hope so many organizations want to teach it, I couldn’t teach all the sections.
The lesson plans already exist—12 online units for an asynchronous class, all without videos, all for free. They can add to the course—I sometimes have a weekly discussion period—but the course is good to go as is, with all the notes and readings (yes, there is a recommended text, but they are welcome to pick their own). I’d also be happy to talk with them, and offer suggestions on how the course could be taught. All they need is a description of the offering (I can give them that too), a way to get people registered, a platform to teach it—and, if they want, a teacher. I provide the rest.
And a desire to improve the profession by meeting a dire need.
They are welcome to teach it for graduate credit, continuing ed credit, other credit, or no credit. They can amend it into more manageable parts for a conference, or change it into a hybrid course, or an in-person course. They can offer it for free, and change it to meet needs in their area if need be. They can hire whomever they wish to teach it, but it’s usually best if it’s a current counselor with experience in college counseling.
I don’t care about making money or getting credit for this training. As long as it gets offered.
Your future peers will thank you.
More important—so will their students.
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