My core belief is that students want to do well and live positive and fulfilling lives.  In the adolescent / teenage years, so much of their decision-making is based on environment combined with cognitive growth. This unfortunately tends to promote behavior and thoughts outside the initial core belief that a positive life is achievable for them as well.  I believe that when students can in a sense ‘get out of their way’ and get back to the basics of building their authentic life, it leaves us with a dynamic in which their abilities to achieve are endless.  These abilities include respecting themselves and others, positively achieving an exceeding educational requirement, setting goals for their future, and continuing to believe that they are capable of doing whatever it is that they want to achieve in life. 

For a school counselor to advocate for each student, they must represent multiculturalism at the highest level possible.  School counselors have to understand, embrace, and advocate for individuality in every facet of what that means. This includes helping students to overcome the barriers that they are afforded because of their ethnicity, family function, race, etc., and/or any other characteristic that incorporates them into multiculturalism.  It also means pushing the boundaries that may lie within the school system that holds these students back from achievement. Advocacy for a school counselor could mean having an unpopular opinion or vote if that means you help support a student a little more. Lastly, advocacy as a school counselor means that continued education never stops.  There has to be a level of self-accountability in the school counselor role to continue to be able to appropriately advocate as our world evolves and changes. 

My school counseling program would start with establishing a very clear collaboration pathway between myself and my school colleagues.  Establishing partnerships to show that support and end goal are on the same path will help unify being able to influence an understanding of what the true role of my being a school counselor is comprised of. Once this collaboration is being achieved effectively, I would focus on the actual plan of advocacy around the students to support their academic, social, emotional, and cognitive growth and development.  The reason I would start with the collaboration rather than the students is that the more I can influence partnerships to walk and promote down the same pathway, the more positive impact I can promote for these students on multiple fronts. 

My vision is to utilize my morals and ethics to create a safe environment for my students so they can be afforded the greatest opportunity to grow academically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.  We will achieve this by upholding our advocacy for multiculturalism as well as tailoring techniques to individualize all students’ needs.