Blog 4

I’d like to take the opportunity to answer some of the questions that were asked of me in chapter 5. Under the Values subheading there were two questions that were asked of the school counselor:

·         Why did I become a school counselor? 

I am becoming a school counselor because I want to advocate for students who do not know how to do this and while providing them with support, also educate them on how to advocate for themselves. I never want a student of mine to come into my office and leave feeling less supported than when they entered my door. I feel that the school counseling field has been vastly overlooked and misunderstood in the past, and one of my goals is to help continue to educate others on what school counselors look like functionally in a school setting. 

·         What do I dream of accomplishing professionally?

My goals professionally include- educating others about what school counselors really do, assisting in creating competency projects that are genuinely related to student’s needs and effective. I would like to be known school wide as an asset when it comes to advocacy for students, ideas and successful CSCP’s. 

·         What do I dream of accomplishing personally?

Personally, I would like to keep growing and learning no matter how old I get. I will strive to be accurate when reporting facts or statistics, to be kind and patient no matter what issue is brought to my door and to be compassionate to others always. I would also like to master empathy over sympathy in my counseling style. 

I was really struck by Richard Harkness’s famous quote “what is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary”. I have to say, I can see the legitimacy of this statement in certain settings. It is unfortunate but my past experience with being on committees and being asked to be on a committee fully supports this mentality. Most of the committees I have been asked to be on were for things I was not truly passionate about, but did not have the heart to say no. I do not mean to say that every committee is comprised of individuals like this. However, it is unfortunate that mentalities like this still exist. I am thinking back to topic of survey skills etc. we discussed in appraisal, and it would appear that if committees are truly being formed from the unfit and by the unwilling, the net for possible applicants has not be cast wide enough. I simply cannot believe that there aren’t enough people, who happen to be passionate in completely different spots, to fill a committee board on whatever the topic of choosing may be. End rant. 

Dollarhide, C.T. & Saginak, K.A. (2012) Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.