♦ Counseling and Personal Development ♦
Graduates should have the personal skills necessary to relate effectively with students as individuals. Specifically, students should be able to:
- assess the developmental and personal needs of individual college students;
- make positive contributions to the personal development and learning of individual students;
- assist students in accessing and utilizing a wide range of services and programs designed to benefit them.
Psychosocial maturity and intellectual growth are intricately intertwined. Each student is unique and understanding and validating each student as an individual is critical to our vocation.
- Familiarity with a range and variety of psychological, social, cognitive, spiritual, and identity development theories, buoys our ability to serve our diverse student populations. View a PowerPoint Show, with music on:
Women’s Way of Knowing (PowerPoint Slideshow) - One of the many joys of our vocation is observing a student maturing, intellectually and personally. That joy is magnified when we also get to watch the student/parent relationship evolve as well. Camela is the mom of my student who received a death threat last quarter, the incident has both strengthened the student’s relationship with his folks and increased his sense of independence. In letting their son make all the decisions after his trauma, the student was empowered, creating something positive from the experience.
Camela email - Jeff’s reward for putting academics ahead of soccer was participation on the 2006, NCAA, Men’s Soccer National Championship team.
Jeff’s Story - Are aculturalization, psychosocial growth, and cognitive development partners or competitors in the process of maturation? Read a case study on one student’s metamorphosis.
Lotus Blossom
A combination of adult development theory, multicultural awareness, familiarity with counseling issues and a crisis intervention plan, helped me respond to four unexpected student emergencies during Fall term, 2006. I knew who to call for assistance, who to include in the recovery effort and the post-incident review. Preparation coupled with continued planning and assessment are critical components in a crisis response plan, and served me well during those difficult times. Faculty and staff need to be alert to student counseling issues and be prepared to respond to distressed students.
- Life issues can disrupt academic process, read my survey of faculty perceptions of counseling issues on my campus.
Counseling Issues