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I truly believe that all students have the capacity to learn and be successful. Student success should be viewed individually and every amount of growth that is demonstrated should be celebrated. As school counselors, our role is to advocate equal and accessible learning for each and every student. This can be accomplished by identifying achievement gaps, attending school site meetings, communicating with teachers and parents, and providing students with specific interventions that focus on decreasing barriers that decrease student success.

My goal is to establish a school counseling program that accommodates all students and acknowledges and appreciates their diverse backgrounds. I will create a safe space at the school I end up working at where students feel comfortable approaching me in and out of my office. I will help teachers create a safe space in the classroom through classroom lessons that promote unity, respect, and empathy. I will advocate for changes in school policies that hinder the success of students.

My personal vision as a school counselor is that I will strive for every student to have equal access and opportunity to achieve the necessary academic, social/emotional, and career skills to reach their personal goals and become confident, effective leaders through advocacy, community, and family involvement and student empowerment.

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School counseling interventions are implemented to support struggling students develop skills to be successful in the school setting. Interventions are also created as preventive measures for students that are identified as at-risk due to different factors. Kuperminc et al.’s (2019) article examined the effects of using a group mentoring program with at-risk high schoolers to promote resilience. The use of different preventive programs is utilized to improve school attendance and increase high school graduation rates. The Project Arrive (PA) program was created to facilitate the transition from middle school to high school for eighth-grade students identified with an increased risk of dropping out of high school (Kuperminc et al., 2019). Attendance rate and grade point average are used as warning indicators in the PA mentoring program. The mentoring group of 6-8 students met weekly for 50-minute sessions guided by two school staff members (teachers and counselors) throughout the academic year to increase positive experiences with school, home, and peers (Kuperminc et al., 2019). Before the academic year began, staff members participated in a 4-hour training conducted by a program coordinator. The coordinator also assisted mentors with enrolling students into the program and provided logistical support to staff members (Kuperminc et al., 2019). The discussion topics ranged from identity to building strong study skills. The PA program demonstrated strengths in creating trust between at-risk students and teachers. Students also showed increased resilience based on the discussions within the mentoring groups (Kuperminc et al., 2019).

I selected this article because there is a lot of truancy among the different grade levels at the high school I work at. Parents are sent warning letters of unexcused absences and tardiness, and the accumulation of these results in loss of credits, which affects their graduation eligibility. Many of the consequences for truancy is detention and in-school suspension; however, this has not resulted in a decline in unexcused absences or tardiness. Therefore, after reading this article about providing mentoring services to students that are susceptible to dropping out of school, I am intrigued if this type of intervention style may lead to some changes in student behavior. School counselors, I have encountered, keep track of attendance and grades, but usually, the administration handles truant students. I believe this intervention style would be beneficial because it involves different staff members volunteering to participate as mentors and help students build resiliency skills to graduate high school. Typically, only school counselors implement and participate in school interventions for students and administration may supervise these interventions and discuss student progress with counselors. School counselors collaborate with teachers, administration, and support staff to implement interventions (American School Counselor Association, 2019). They can train staff members on how to become mentors and provide support to more students as caseloads for school counselors are enormous. By creating trust between students and staff members, students may be more likely to ask for academic assistance or disclose any barriers that may prevent them from graduating.

References

American School Counselor Association. (2019). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (4th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association

Kuperminc, G. P., Chan, W. Y., Hale, K. E., Joseph, H. L., & Delbasso, C. A. (2019). The Role of School‐based Group Mentoring in Promoting Resilience among Vulnerable High School Students. American Journal of Community Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12347

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School Counselor Competency Assessment Reflection 

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School Counselor Competency Assessment Reflection 