FSCA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 High School Student Scholarships and Graduate Student Scholarship. The committee of volunteers reviewed more than 400 scholarship applications this year. These winning submissions highlighted what their ideal school counseling program would look like and the importance of advocating for legislation mandating 80% direct and 20% indirect services by school counselors. A special thank you to all the high school counselors, counselor preparation programs, and the FSCA Scholarship & Grants committee that helped make this scholarship opportunity a big success!
A special thank you to all the committee members: Sandi Logan (Chair), Aileen Carmona, Olivia Gordon, Sarah Haidar, Nevy Huertas, Veritza Kostovski, Ashley Lawrence, Jeannie Maddox, Zaida Mesa, Anna Owens, Josh Stanley, Teresa Synder, and Eric Thompson for their efforts in reviewing all the submissions.
High School Winner: Jameson Jaikaran, East Bay High School (Hillsborough County)
Prompt: “What would your ideal school counseling program look like? How would you want your school counselor to help you and your peers?”
In today’s world, the average student faces a variety of problems during their school career. These issues can be the pressure of getting good grades, family conflicts, or even bullying, and the list goes on. Therefore, the need for a supportive counseling program is paramount. As a student, I have witnessed firsthand, both in myself and my peers, a reluctance to seek out one on one counseling. This is due to the stigma associated with seeking counseling, as well as the belief that counseling will not be beneficial to them. The need, therefore, arises for a school counseling program whereby the issues that students are facing can be addressed without them seeking traditional one on one counseling.
The ideal school counseling program that I believe would be extremely beneficial would be structured as follows. Students would be able to write down their concerns and the issues they are facing and leave them with their school counselor. The school counselor would then review these issues. Once a week, one forty-five-minute class period would be dedicated to a group counseling period. The counselor would discuss as many of the issues as they can, with students offering their input and asking any questions they may have. During this time, the school counselor would also spread awareness for mental health and encourage students to seek out further one on one sessions if they need them. The counselor may also provide information on further resources in their community that may be helpful to students with specific issues.
I strongly trust that this program would be able to supplement and strengthen the current school counseling program. The first reason for this is that I believe students would be a lot more responsive to an initiative where they feel as though the counselor is coming to them to help them deal with their issues, rather than them needing to seek their counselor out. The second advantage that I see to this program is that when a specific issue that is affecting one student is discussed in a group, other students that make be having the same issue will be able to benefit from the discussion. This would also lead to students seeing that they are never alone in their problems, and other people go through similar difficulties, and this can help fight the stigma associated with seeking counseling. Lastly, I think that this program is an excellent way for the school counselors to get an idea of what all students are facing, and they will be able to gauge if any of their students may need additional help. The counselor can then offer the appropriate support to those individuals. Hence, I have the utmost confidence that this program will be valuable to myself and my peers.
High School Winner: Angelinne Moreno, iMater Preparatory Academy (Miami-Dade)
Prompt: “What would your ideal school counseling program look like? How would you want your school counselor to help you and your peers?”
As a dedicated student concerned for not only my post-secondary education but for my current high school studies I believe school counselors should definitely provide constant guidance and assistance to any and all interested in receiving it.
My ideal school counseling program would make it a priority for all students to know who the school counselor is and where they can be found in the event that the student ever needs to locate them. As a current high school senior I know for a fact not everyone knows who their counselor is, where they can be found or what time is appropriate to seek them out. By familiarizing the student with the counselor from the get-go a lot of time is saved and the student can begin feeling comfortable with the idea of speaking to that person for any advice they may need.
My counseling program would require the counselor’s themselves to attend conferences at least once a year with other school advisors. These meetings would broaden everyone’s resources by extending each individual’s current knowledge to one another. An unfortunate reality is that not all counselors stay up to date regarding supplementary resources and opportunities for their students. These annual conferences could serve as an informational mini-course where they’ll learn about the ever-expanding opportunities available for high school students and how to introduce them to their school.
In addition to these annual meetups, I would like for there to be a virtual and physical platform where information for students is continuously posted. This could be anything from a bulletin board at the front of the school to an app where the counselor can upload content for students to see. This would be a huge advantage because often even if the counselor is up to date and eager to help they don’t have the sufficient way to reach students. With an app, for example, it’s more convenient to look up whatever one is interested in knowing about.
Another important implementation of my model counseling program would be constant communication between the counselor and each individual student which would be done by hosting personal meetings with each student at least once each semester. This would greatly benefit both parties because the counselor would stay informed about all the students respectfully and it could also decrease the number of random visits to their office at inconvenient times. The student will have a greater probability of staying on track since these meetings would consist of them being informed on where they are academically and where they need to be.
Lastly, frequent announcements are just as essential to a worthy counseling program for any school. Traditional high schools are constantly reminding the whole student body of upcoming activities going on within the school. I believe academic announcements are just as significant to students. In my program announcements for tutoring sessions, counselor conferences, and other reminders to students would not be a rare occurrence. This way students have daily prompting to consider their academic standing.
Graduate Student Winner: Courtney Sanchez, University of North Florida
Prompt: Why should FSCA and its members advocate for legislation requiring or mandating 80% direct & 20% indirect services for school counselors?
Even though school counselors take on many roles their main objective is to amplify student achievement. School counselors are there to meet the needs of the students, it is imperative that we build relationships within our school and community to understand these needs. This is where mandating direct contact hours is crucial to our profession. If we are locked behind doors or taking on other responsibilities that are not geared towards developing student achievement and preparing them for success, we are missing our mark. With the high student-counselor ratios we face, it takes time for us to build relationships within the school community. Direct contact allows us to get out behind the door and desk which is traditionally associated with the counselor role. It gets us in direct contact with the student body, it lets them see our faces and help them to understand our role. This means pushing into classes delivering appropriate grade level lessons that will start the foundation for the student in building their post-secondary educational goals. It also means developing small groups that could help those students who would benefit from working with a group of their peers towards a goal common goal, such as decreasing absentees. It also means helping students and parents in overcoming barriers for those students who are more likely to be affected by obstacles. Lastly, it allows us to work with our colleagues in resolving issued that impact the school community.
Being able to directly work with students will have the greatest impact on the students and school community. There needs to be a mandated policy that outlines how School Counselors need to best utilize their time to meet the demands of the student and school. This comes through legislation. Why is legislation so important? There has been a dramatic shift in duties and responsibilities of the school counselor and even though we have professional standards that clearly state how we can impact students, it is difficult to achieve those standards if we are giving alternative duties that are not geared towards that objective. The legislation will provide a parameter for administers and other school leaders to follow when making decisions about the duties of the school counselor. The legislation empowers the school counselor to advocate for scheduling direct hours with students because it is mandated. This legislation would also permit unions to include these into contracts that would protect the school counselor when they are advocating for their time to be used in the way that would have the most impact in the school. When policies are written, it clearly outlines procedures and expectations that can be referred to when making decisions about the roles and duties of the counselor. It is the hope of the profession that this legislation would reduce the need for counselors to plead with administration and juggling additional duties that take them away from the very population that needs them the most, students. This well-defined break down of how hours should be spent is what is in the best interest of the school community.
