Practicum Experience Essay

Each week during my practicum experience I gain additional understanding of the impact school counselors make in student lives. To be an effective school counselor, one must recognize each student as individual. A personal goal I set out of this practicum experience is to learn how to identity student needs and understand issues students face in the school environment. Each year the school counselors at Brooke Point High School, organize an Ice Cream Social to welcome new students to the school and help them meet other new students in the school. Brooke Point is a very diverse school and during the student’s brief introductions I able to see a wide range cultures represented in the school environment. Each new student was given a pass

As the students came into the lunch area, they handed their passes to a school counselor and sat a table with their assigned number. We passed out ice creams and gave them a few minutes to chat among themselves as an ice breaker. Once majority of the student were accounted for the school principal welcomed them to the school and encourage each student to join a club or participate in a school sport. The principal introduced the school counselors and the school counselors gave a brief introduction of themselves and their role as a counselor. The purpose of the Ice Cream social is to help students make new friends. Therefore, the students were asked to introduce themselves to each other and to state where they came from. The group had to select someone to speak for them and state the two furthest point from the group (based on states the students came from). As I stated, Broke Point is very diverse several students were exchange students and others came as far as

According to D. Hays, “Career development is a continual process across the life span, and counselors have important obligation to assess career related concerns and successes as part (or central) to the counseling process. This week we met with an African American student how was ranked number 490 out of 495 senior students. The counselor reviewed the student academic record and explained to the student what classes he had to pass to graduate. The student came across as if he wasn’t concerned and was annoyed being in the counselor office. I assumed after the counselor was done reviewing his grades she was going to send him back to class because of his lack of interest. I was greatly mistaken, instead the counselor continued and give him the same opportunities as the other students were offered. She had to change her approach and gain understanding of what issues the student was facing. The student open up to the counselor and told her, he had missed some days of school because of his ride. The counselor was honest with him and told him, she asked him if he needed help catching up in his classes and also let him know that she would be meeting with him again to check on his progress and attendance. She asked him what his career interest were and told him he could be anything he wanted and that if he wanted to pursue higher education he could, he might have to start with a