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NMC holds Counselors’ Conference
The Northern Marianas College held a two-day Counselors’ Conference, bringing together counselors from the college as well as private and public schools on island last Feb. 4 and 5 at the Kanoa Resort.
Among the main speakers was Kurt Dela Cruz, a senior adviser from the University of Hawaii.
According to Dela Cruz, there are many things that shape the students that they are working with in Hawaii. Despite the image of their islands as paradise, Dela Cruz said there still are problems within the community particularly those who experience poverty and resort to crime.
“When you deal with the more needy communities and the more underrepresented communities, you have to take note of the trauma that has plagued the generations of people whether it has been from immigration or working or language barriers or whatever. We have to take that into account to see where the students are now in order to shape programs for the future,” Dela Cruz said.
Dela Cruz also noted that most of the time, people living in the islands are afraid of change.
“Sometimes change is hard for people, even when life could be seemingly miserable,” Dela Cruz said, “Sometimes islanders, we have the thought to just kind of deal with it, everybody has hard times so we just deal with it as opposed to having a greater synthesis to move forward.”
He also noted that it is important for counselors to come together and discuss the needs of their community as a whole and be able to share it with neighboring islands as well, which was also recognized by NMC dean of Student Services Leo Pangelinan.
“We’re finding that more people outside of that fold and from different organizations, whether their title is counselor or not, can benefit from this kind of training and sharing of experience and knowledge,” Pangelinan said.
Aside from Dela Cruz and Pangelinan, Greg Borja and Thomas Thornburgh of the Northern Marianas Protection and Advocacy Systems, Inc., and Dr. Cherrie Lovejoy of NMC were also among the speakers.
Breakout sessions were also held to discuss topics such as students’ needs, legal and ethical issues in counseling, and the systems and mental healthcare, among others.
