Field Interviews: Ninth-Grade Counselor and College Adviser
Background
For this paper, I decided to focus my attention on one population that I am potentially interested in working with, which are high school students. The first person I interviewed was a ninth-grade counselor at Alain Leroy Locke College Prepartory Academy. The second person I interviewed was a College Adviser, placed through USC, at Diego Rivera Learning Complex. While the first interview was conducted on site at Locke, the second interview was conducted on campus at USC. For both interviews, I came equipped with my questions already printed out and ready for me to write down what I was told. In discussing the challenges that both the counselor and adviser experience in …show more content…
In addressing student learning and motivation challenges, the ninth-grade counselors at Alain Leroy Locke take a more holistic approach. The counselor related that they do home visits, one on one meetings with students, group counseling sessions and expose them to college by taking them on field trips to various campuses. She also mentioned that they keep granola bars in the office for students who are hungry, since being hungry is not a good condition to be in when trying to learn. For students who have good behavior, they are given meal cards to use at lunch time to be able to access food options that they would rather have (she related that many students do not like to eat the food the school provides …show more content…
However, depending on what type of counselor or advisor you are in this setting, your role in addressing these issues changes drastically. I was surprised by the extensive role of a high school counselor; as mentioned previously, as a ninth-grade counselor for a primarily low-income and minority population school, the counselor’s job description exceeds what I previously thought was typical of that of an academic advisor. Her students are often faced with distressing situations outside the school that she has to navigate, along with the challenges that they face academically. As a college adviser, while the stresses of the college application process are difficult to navigate as well, it seems that it is not within her job description to handle situations arising from home life. In this context, students exhibiting issues such as these would probably be referred to their assigned counselor rather than their college adviser. Essentially, it is the ninth-grade advisors job to fully counsel her students in all aspects of life that are affecting learning and motivation, wheras the college advisor is only supposed to focus on helping students navigate learning and motivation challenges in relation
Background
For this paper, I decided to focus my attention on one population that I am potentially interested in working with, which are high school students. The first person I interviewed was a ninth-grade counselor at Alain Leroy Locke College Prepartory Academy. The second person I interviewed was a College Adviser, placed through USC, at Diego Rivera Learning Complex. While the first interview was conducted on site at Locke, the second interview was conducted on campus at USC. For both interviews, I came equipped with my questions already printed out and ready for me to write down what I was told. In discussing the challenges that both the counselor and adviser experience in …show more content…
In addressing student learning and motivation challenges, the ninth-grade counselors at Alain Leroy Locke take a more holistic approach. The counselor related that they do home visits, one on one meetings with students, group counseling sessions and expose them to college by taking them on field trips to various campuses. She also mentioned that they keep granola bars in the office for students who are hungry, since being hungry is not a good condition to be in when trying to learn. For students who have good behavior, they are given meal cards to use at lunch time to be able to access food options that they would rather have (she related that many students do not like to eat the food the school provides …show more content…
However, depending on what type of counselor or advisor you are in this setting, your role in addressing these issues changes drastically. I was surprised by the extensive role of a high school counselor; as mentioned previously, as a ninth-grade counselor for a primarily low-income and minority population school, the counselor’s job description exceeds what I previously thought was typical of that of an academic advisor. Her students are often faced with distressing situations outside the school that she has to navigate, along with the challenges that they face academically. As a college adviser, while the stresses of the college application process are difficult to navigate as well, it seems that it is not within her job description to handle situations arising from home life. In this context, students exhibiting issues such as these would probably be referred to their assigned counselor rather than their college adviser. Essentially, it is the ninth-grade advisors job to fully counsel her students in all aspects of life that are affecting learning and motivation, wheras the college advisor is only supposed to focus on helping students navigate learning and motivation challenges in relation