Michigan Association for College Admission Counseling
SCHOOL COUNSELORS CAN GET LONG-AWAITED TRAINING IN COLLEGE ADVISING AND COUNSELING
Breakthrough Class Focuses Solely on Transition to College Issues; Graduate Credit Available
School counselors who are looking for additional help working with college-bound students have a new course designed to meet their needs.This summer, Oakland Community College will be offering two sections of Counseling in the College Selection Process.One section will be offered entirely online, making this essential training available to all school counselors, while a second section will combine a week-long series of classes with online activities.
"The first section of the class was a huge success" said Patrick O'Connor, instructor of the course and Director of College Counseling at Roeper School in Birmingham."Experienced counselors left the course with new ideas, new contacts and networks, new approaches to take back to their schools, and an armload of new resources to help their students find the right college, apply for financial aid, and make the most out of high school, all without the stress the college search can bring."
The class addresses many of the logistics counselors face when helping students with college decisions, including writing letters of recommendation, finding money to pay for college, and organizing a student's applications.In addition, the class addresses topics such as building a can-do college atmosphere in your high school, gaining community support for your college advising program, and the relationship between college advising and the social-emotional needs of students and families.
"There's a clear link between college choice and the rest of a school's counseling services" says O'Connor, who is a past president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling."A vast majority of counselors leave graduate school with absolutely no training in this critical area, then struggle for up to 10 years with on-the-job training before they feel confident in their college advising skills.This course fills the gap."
Nationally, less than 25 counselor graduate programs offer a course solely focused solely on the college selection process, and this is the only course of its kind offered in Michigan.
In addition to receiving 4.0 State Board CEUs for the course, enrolled students can receive 4 graduate credit hours for the course through Oakland University for an additional fee.
"This means counselors can take a class for recertification that will contain brand new material" said O'Connor."They are ecstatic."
