Application Essay: A Career As A Student Success Counselor

Counseling is defined as ”the use of therapeutic strategies to help clients address personal concerns and mental health issues” (Nystul, 2016). Pursuing counseling as a career involves many years of formal study and certification or licensure. After receiving licensure to practice as a professional counselors it is a requirement to maintain involvement and certification in certain associations in order to hold your license. These association often require further education and/or professional practice in order to maintain membership in these associations. It is quite obvious that counseling requires a large amount of commitment and passion in order to pursue it as a career and maintain a title as a counselor. I have conducted an interview with a professional counselor in order to further understand the experience of being a counselor. The interview that I conducted explores the requirements of maintaining and receiving a counselling career, the experience of being a counselor, and what characteristics or skills a professional may have. The Individual who agreed to the interview was a counselor by the name of Susie Facio. Susie Facio, through this interview, will be giving us a look at what influenced her to become a counselor, what her work entails on a day to day basis, and what qualities and skills she has acquired in order to become a successful counselor.

The choices we make early in life have an enormous impact on our future. I have always known that I wanted to directly impact people’s lives and my personal experiences have set me on the school-counseling path. In the future, I would love to influence another generation of students to soar for their dreams.

My pursuit of becoming a School Counselor led me to apply to the School Counseling Master’s Program at University of Maryland, College Park. I am a former student at University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. After graduating and teaching for two years in Prince George’s County Public Schools, I discovered my true passion lies not only in the classroom and students’ academics, but playing a pivotal role in the growth of their career, social, and personal development. Although I am no longer teaching full-time at the moment, my interaction with students from diverse backgrounds left an indelible responsibility to continue making a difference in our students. The objectives and mission of the School Counseling Master’s Program at University of Maryland can best help my goal of becoming an effective counselor and leader who is an agent of change to students and service the mental and emotional well-being of the younger generation.

I desire to pursue school counseling as my career to become an effective and successful leader in this profession. Why? I have always held a passion for touching the lives of the youth in a great and positive manner. A licensed school counselor entails helping students with academic achievement, personal/social growth and career development, ensuring students become the industrious, well-balanced adults of tomorrow. while, operating as a professional school counselor involves me obtaining the appropriate knowledge and skills that will support me with providing exceptional service for clients. I believe that I can obtain this intelligence here at Capella University. I comprehend that as a professional school counselor I would be expected

It was during my senior year of college that I decided I wanted to become a school counselor. Up until my senior year in college at Penn State I did not know where I wanted to take my career but I knew I wanted to work in a school setting and I knew that I wanted to work with kids. When it came time to choose an internship site for my last semester, I chose an alternative school called Buxmont Academy in Bethlehem where I would be shadowing two of their school counselors as well as engaging with the students themselves. I got to work with these children on a more personal level, gaining an understanding of their emotions, experiences, and difficulties, as most of these children came from broken homes, and drug and alcohol related settings. I am interested in becoming a school counselor because I want to help. When I become a counselor I want to make a difference in a child’s life whether that be by simply giving them support that they might not have in their lives or helping them make changes to better themselves and their futures. A counselor has such an important role in helping to shape young children and that is something that I want to be a part of.

I believe that I have many skills and experiences that will allow for me to be a great counselor. I have seen first hand, experienced first hand, and learned to deal with things first hand. I experience anxiety, but have learned how to cope and deal with it. It is not always easy when there are so many things that can be thrown at you through life. I have a lot of motivation, qualities, experiences, and goals that I can bring to counseling.

My commitment to my goal of receiving a Master’s degree in counseling has been demonstrated throughout my studies at Rollins by maintaining a GPA of 4.0, my willingness to support my cohort, and by exhibiting an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Although I had retired on a fixed income from a business career due to a disability, I have confirmed my potential, stamina, and desire to counsel through my volunteer work as a guardian advocate, working with people who suffer from addiction, and by remaining an advocate for the LGBTQ community. I have thrived with my undergraduate internship at the Center for Drug Free Living and with my prepracticum at Centaur.

With basketball completely out of the equation, my quintessential career path would be to become some sort of counselor. Before jumping to conclusions assuming a counselor is someone who just sits back with a pen and notepad all day giving the occasional “how does that make you feel”, a lot of things need to be taken into consideration about how much time, and effort and strenuous work is required to pursue this career path. A counselor (depending on what field) is typically someone who uses therapeutic techniques to help patients strengthen existing qualities and skills used in everyday life. Ideally I would like to become a school counselor to begin coping with the minds of the youth, then hopefully move on from there. In order to do so

One particular activity that I feel has made a difference in the community is my participation in Mini-THON, a student-led philanthropic organization that raises money for research in pediatric cancer and benefits Four Diamonds and Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. I have served as the Junior and Senior Co-Chair, or President, for the past two years, respectively. Each year, my responsibilities have expanded from simply attending meetings and contributing ideas for fundraisers, to actively coordinating meetings and organizing fundraisers with local businesses. For example, our club held our first annual “Teenie-THON” for elementary school students. We spent countless hours creating advertisements and permission slips for the participants.

In the course of my time at Union County College, I was able to participate in measures that aided my community and those in need. I took part in the donation and creation of care bags which were donated to the Salvation Army. This initiative was made by AESNJ as part of their statewide drive to help those who lack the resources needed to obtain day to day necessities such as hygienic supplies, socks, tissues and other essentials. Additionally, I made a financial contribution which went towards aiding Syrian children. Helping individuals in need encouraged me to participate in Strides against Breast Cancer a walkathon which generated money for women whose lives were impacted by cancer. The financial donations assisted women who were unable

The National Board for Certified Counselors began in1983. This examination was intended to assess knowledge of counseling information and skills. I will describe the test and its usefulness. My purpose is to evaluation the extent to which the NCE fulfills primary psychometric criteria. Comprehensive understanding of the NCE is necessary in order to pass the NCE. Collectively, this information should aid in a complete understanding of the NCE.

Finding a job is never an easy thing to do however for people with disabilities it is a lot more difficult. The unemployment rate of people with disabilities is nearly double than those without a disability. As a mother of a child with a disability I tend to think about his future and can’t help but wonder the challenges he will face when he is old enough to look for a job. I know becoming a Certified Rehab Counselor (CRC) will allow me to learn how I can help people with all types of disabilities cope with its effects and help them find a meaningful job that will increase their independence and overall quality of life. I am currently a Service Coordinator with Valley Association for Independent Living (VAIL) and I work with people with disabilities every day.

In order to pursue my dream career in being an addictions counselor, I require a higher level of schooling to ensure that I will be doing a good job and be the perfect fit for my clients. There is a lot of courses that one can take in order to be an addictions counselor, but for me I got my eye on three. Firstly, I will need to have more studies in maths, this can be about any high level math class like algebra or business mathematics. For example, Indeed shares that you need to use math to understand how to build successful statistics (Ring). Thus, as an addictions counselor, I must be able to calculate factors like a drugs dosage and what it means to my client quickly in my head. Secondly, I will need to know about alcohol and drug abuse to be an effective counselor, this class is essential to be an addictions counselor.

It is quite remarkable to see the skills I have learnt put into action with individuals I encounter in my every day dealings. By implementing the basic counselling skills learnt, it has aided me in being a better person and also laid the foundations for my future career. Many skills were used in a variety of situations in the past quarter of a year, however, only a brief description of a few will be discussed below. It is simpler to learn a core skill from a textbook however it is more complex to apply that skill in practise; every individual is different and so are each of their issues. It is important as a student to familiarise ourselves with the key skills needed to become a successful skilled helper. In the beginning we are taught

School counseling as always caught my attention. When I started my higher education, I had a focus on studying Elementary Education. However, after completing a college assignment for one of my psychology course, I found a very interested area in Psychology which is counseling. Since then, I have falling in love with counseling, and have spent a lot of time researching the career. I have conducted different interviews and have engaged in different counseling events that have helped me get to know the career. Therefore, when given this assignment, I felt more than prepared because I have spent a lot of time researching this career. However, I used the given source, ONET, to have more of a broad understanding about School Counseling.