Advising

Professional Development Advising

Each student enrolled in the program is assigned a faculty advisor. At orientation, students are familiarized with the advising process, the Mastery Competencies Portfolio system, admission to internship, nomination for graduation, and the Counselor Assessment Scale.

Midway through the first semester in the program, the faculty advisor meets with their advisees (either individually or in a group according to faculty preference) to discuss personal strengths, growth edges, and goals.

At this meeting students will also be asked to submit a form certifying that they have read and understand the program’s Student Handbook and the Graduate School Catalog. They will also be asked to identify on this form the professional organization they have joined.

The focus of professional development advising is on progress toward admission to internship until such time as that goal is accomplished. Subsequent mentoring is focused on professional development and nomination for graduation.

The first advising meeting, with all students, is initiated by the faculty advisor. Subsequent meetings are initiated by the faculty advisor only if there are identified concerns; otherwise, the student can ask for an advising meeting as desired.

Mastery Competency Portfolio. Each student will maintain their own Mastery Competency Portfolio, to be available for faculty review. The Mastery Competency Portfolio is described more completely in Counselor Formation Assessment section of this handbook.

Academic Advising

The primary goal of academic advising is to help the student with course planning, determination of transfer credit, or other academic matters. Students are asked to take responsibility to consult with their academic adviser as they have need. Note that the program’s administrative assistant handles all routine registration matters and can respond to course scheduling questions.