Ongoing advocacy projects

Ongoing advocacy projects from NAU-Flagstaff, NAU-Phoenix, and NAU-Tucson Masters Programs in School Counseling

White House Convening, November 17-18, 2014

The COE Educational Psychology Department’s Dr. Joyce DeVoss and Dr. Judy Bowers recently attended the 2014 White House Convening and appear in the video below.

Ongoing Professional School Counseling Political Advocacy Projects:

Dr. Joyce DeVoss and Dr. Pat Young are our School Counseling Program Coordinators at NAU-Tucson and NAU-Phoenix (respectively).  Drs. DeVoss and Young have been involved at the state and national level with specific activities to increase college access.  In 2013-1014, we were involved with AZCAN (Az College Access Network) to customize CAP (College Access Professionals) training for Arizona. In Summer, 2014, Joyce and Pat completed CAP facilitator training to teach the CAP program.

In November, 2014, they were invited and attended the White House convening on the Reach Higher Initiative in San Diego.  At that meeting, they worked on the Arizona committee and helped to create an Arizona commitment document that was forwarded to the White House.  In Spring, 2015, they worked together to integrate CAP training into several courses of the NAU School Counseling curriculum with the goal of insuring that our graduates demonstrate familiarity with the resources in each of the CAP Modules.

During the Spring, 2015 semester, their intern students will complete advocacy projects in K-12 schools with the theme of creating a college-going culture.  They continue to serve on the Arizona College Access team and the CAP advisory committee.   They plan in the future to develop and to offer a graduate professional development course based on the CAP training for inservice professional school counselors.

Brief intro to the NAU Tucson School Counseling Program including student testimonials.

Awards

• Dr. Joyce DeVoss was recognized as 2009 Postsecondary Counselor of the Year by AzSCA.
• Tina Verville was 2010 Middle School Counselor of the Year.

Leadership in AzSCA

Recent and past presidents of AzSCA:

• Tori Bourguignon, NAU-Yuma SC grad.
• Allen Hill, NAU-Yuma SC grad.
• Cari Burson, NAU-Tucson graduate – New President Elect-Elect of AzSCA
• Candice Alvarez has been secretary for the AzSCA board for several years

Involvement in RAMP, an American School Counselor Association recognized model program

• Christa Mussi, a recent NAU-Tucson graduate led RAMP at Dobson HS.

We also have several students who received RAMP recognition for their schools, including:

• Kathleen Phillips, La Paloma Lakeside Academy Charter School, Tucson, AZ
• Candace Alvarez, Southgate Academy Charter School, NAU Tucson
• Christa Pederson, B.T. Washington Elementary School and Alma Elementary School, NAU Tucson
• Jennifer de la Montana, Degrazia Elementary School, NAU Tucson
• Gayle Taylor (Lynn Urquides Elementary School, NAU-TUC)
• Justin Curran (John B Wright  And, from NAU-TUC)
• Zulema Suarez from Maldonado Elementary School NAU-TUC

A day on the hill

Above is a picture of M.Ed. School Counseling North Valley student, Stacey Flores. Stacey is currently Recruitment Coordinator of the College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University. They have the highest number of underrepresented undergraduates of any college. Stacey attended the Day on the Hill with Dr. Patricia Young (NAU Phoenix-North Valley Professor) last fall. The goal of the event is for current Professional School Counselors to speak to legislators about school counselors, the ASCA National Model Program, Counselor Identity and counseling “mindsets & behaviors” including College and Career Readiness, for the students served.

AzSCA Graduate scholarship recipients

Two students for the NV, Amy Allen Rogers (current intern) received the scholarship in 2014 and Angie Castaneda (current intern) received the 2015 scholarship.

Advocacy publications by NAU faculty

Richardson, B. G. & Surmitis, K. A. (2014, November). Responding to the Rise in Self-injury in Youth. Counseling Today, 57(5), 41-45.