Mar 28, 2024  
Graduate Record 2013-2014 
    
Graduate Record 2013-2014 [ARCHIVED RECORD]

Counselor Education


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Counseling is a unique helping profession based on education and social and behavioral sciences. The program prepares students to work well with others, communicate effectively, tolerate ambiguity and handle a variety of interpersonal situations. The master’s degree (M.Ed.), in addition to being accredited by CACREP, is approved by the Virginia Department of Education. Graduates will be recommended for Virginia licensure as preK-12 school counselors. The program is designed to prepare students to become accountable, competent, and reflective counselors who promote the academic, career, and personal/social development of young people. The primary goal of faculty is to prepare ethical, culturally competent counselors who address individual and systemic barriers to educational achievement and personal development in the context of a comprehensive developmental school-counseling program. As specialists in counselor education, graduates of the program will demonstrate the ability to facilitate student development in programmatic development and the three broad areas described in the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) National Standards: academic development, career development, and personal/social development. The program is broadly based and interdisciplinary in nature.

The Counselor Education program requires a minimum of 48 (core, specialty, elective) credits. Students must enroll on a full-time basis during the academic year and one summer session course between their first and second years . In addition, students may choose to take elective classes during the summer.

Students interested in becoming counselors focus their training on planning, implementing and evaluating counseling programs to meet the unique social, physical, intellectual, and emotional needs of children and adolescents in school settings. Although students may focus their training on a specific age level through the choice of electives, all students in the program are required to complete a counseling field experience at both elementary (pre-K through 6) and middle/secondary (7-12) school settings. Students are assigned to practicum and internship sites in local and neighboring school districts (e.g., Albemarle County, Charlottesville City Schools, Fluvanna County Schools, Greene County Schools, Nelson County Schools, Orange County Schools). Students’ practicum, completed in their first spring semester, is 100 hours. Students must complete their internship during the fall and spring of their second year. They must complete a minimum of 600 hours (300 each semester).

 

 

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