During my first semester in the School Counseling graduate program at Westfield State University, I gained a vast depth of information on the philosophy of transformed school counseling.

You may be asking yourself, what is this? Why is it important to primary/secondary education students? A school counselor plays an important role within student’s academic journey, as they’re guided towards their hopes and dreams in life.

In the transformed school counseling philosophy, the counselors practice beyond the one-on-one counseling. They focus on equality of each and every student by eliminating the boundary of academic opportunities.

One role these counselors have is to close the achievement gap amongst various subgroups in their school. Achievement gaps, or academic performance can be broken down into different groups of students: socioeconomic, race/ethnicity, students with disabilities, etc.

Implementation of programs is key in schools. One beneficial program is Math Bootcamp, which aims to improve Math Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System scores. By setting up various programming within schools, students are given the opportunity to gain educational, social, and emotional improvement.

Personally, post graduation, I aim to land a career as a high school counselor because my own made such an impact on my life. Using the philosophy of the transformed school counselor, my goal is to make every academic opportunity available for each of my students.

Some key areas of personal interest are: first-generation students attending higher education, career planning, and working with at-risk students.