UHCL offers New School Counselors Boot Camp

April 17, 2018 | UHCL Staff

UHCL offers New School Counselors Boot Camp

For University of Houston-Clear Lake students about to graduate with degrees in school counseling and for school counselors in the field, the Center for Educational Programs is offering a two-session New Counselor Boot Camp on Saturday, April 14 and Saturday, May 5 from 9 a.m. – noon in room 1310.05 of the Arbor Building.

The Boot Camp, led by UH-Clear Lake alumna and Clear Creek ISD certified school counselor and licensed professional counselor-Intern Dawn Coryat-Hon,  provides soon-to-be graduates with valuable information about giving a great job interview, and strategies to plan a productive and well-organized first year on the job.

“The first session, called ‘How to Wow the Interview,’ focuses not as much about what prospective school counselors say in a job interview, but on how they sometimes say it,” Coryat-Hon said. “Part of the interview is nonverbal communication, and it’s so important that counselor candidates communicate warmth and caring during an interview for a position that demands warmth and caring.”

She added that projecting confidence is also a must during the job interview. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of wordsmithing their responses a little better, to be successful in the interview,” she said.

Coryat-Hon said she will practice interview skills with counselor candidates relying on her own years of experience as a school counselor, as well as using what the American School Counselor Association suggests for interview questions. “They provide a variety of questions that are likely to be asked in an interview, and we work on those. They’re questions about personal philosophy, and about real problems they’ll face working with students in schools,” she said.

The second Boot Camp session, titled “I’ve Landed the Job – Now What?” helps counselor candidates strategize ways to begin planning an entire school year. “It’s a bit like eating an elephant,” she said. “You have to take one bite at a time. However, we don’t want them to wait till the last minute to think about planning. Confidence comes from knowing what to expect, so if they are aware of what's typically done in most schools, and start brainstorming ideas, they can start their school year with ease.”

During this session, she will discuss the events to expect during fall and spring semesters, then break it down by month.  “For some agenda items, like STAAR testing, we can even start pinning down potential dates to begin our tasks,” Coryat-Hon said.  “Knowing these things up front and well in advance will give the new counselor a sense of calm in the midst of a very chaotic job.”

Director of UH-Clear Lake’s Center for Educational Programs Tonya Jeffery said that participants in the New School Counselors Boot Camp will receive three hours of CPE credit for each session. “Through our professional development programs, it’s great to bring people to our campus and provide this outreach to our community,” she said. “This program offers a great service to students and recent graduates, and it’s open to the community.”

For more information and to register, visit http://cep.uhcl.edu.

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