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PREL conference benefits from ASCA conference
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Posted on Jul 29 2004
The American School Counselors Association’s annual conference in Nevada brought valuable information to counselors attending the Pacific Region Educational Leadership conference in Rota.
“What we learned from the conference [last year] was echoed to the counselors [in the PREL conference] this year,” said Rebecca J. Flores, counselor for William S. Reyes Elementary.
“We were kept under the counseling [department] to present one session to other counselors [in the Micronesian region],” said Patricia Mendoza, counselor for Hopwood Junior High School.
The workshop gave counselors the new vision of school counseling such as the leadership roles, assessment and use of data.
Mendoza said the workshop is a framework for counselors to guide them on the duties, roles, standards and benchmarks that must be followed.
“We can look in the system to help students. We are growing stronger with our guidance hat,” she added.
Flores and Mendoza and are both members of the Public School System Counseling Steering Committee that represented the CNMI in the ASCA conference.
According to the ASCA website, the association focuses in providing professional development, enhancing school counseling programs and researching effective school counseling practices to represent professional school counselors and promote professionalism and ethical practices.
The ASCA conference last year gathered four CNMI delegates—Cecilia Labausa, counselor for Saipan Southern High School, Rota High School counselor Tanya King, Flores, and Mendoza in St. Louis.
Participants from Chuuk, Rota, Marshall Islands, Pohnpei, Yap, Kosrae, Tinian, and Guam attended the ASCA conference intended to focus on counselors working as leaders and advocates for systemic change.
The PREL conference next year will discuss new ideas, strategies, techniques, and activities that will improve the implementation of the comprehensive guidance and counseling program in the CNMI school level. (Cassie DLG Fejeran)
