What Does it Mean to Be a Transformed School Counselor Part I

The role of the school counselor has constantly been evolving. In recent years we have moved from being focused mainly on social-emotional health to college and career counseling and advocacy. I’m new to the field, I’m actually still in training, but I’ve been involved in community engagement and social justice work my entire life. My love for social justice is actually what initially drew me to the field. As the end of my undergraduate career drew near, I began to think about what my next steps would be. I tend to procrastinate by reading copious amounts of research on marginalized communities. While procrastinating, I came across a great body of research on college access all written by School Counselors and School Counseling Professors. I considered it a divine sign so I googled the author, found her university, and applied. That’s how I ended up at JHU and in the fourth cohort of the School Counseling Fellows.

Now back to what it means to be a Transformed School Counselor. For me it comes down to three main components:

Data, Social Justice, & Collaboration

I’ll take some time later to talk about each one of these components in detail but for now I think that’ll do. Suffice it to say: data drives and assesses all interventions, social justice guides interventions to emphasize equity or equality, and collaboration opens minds, hearts, and hands to create new possibilities for our students, families, and communities. I’m a huge fan of run-on sentences if you haven’t guessed. So why am I a Transformed School Counselor (in training)? Well, because our students deserve better. Teachers are phenomenal but students also need education that addresses their holistic growth–who they are, how they fit in society, and where they want to go. Students need a curriculum that addresses the process of becoming. Too often we expect students to have skills and concepts that we don’t explicitly teach. I plan to teach those skills and support students, families, and teachers on this difficult and rewarding journey.