President's Letter: Aiming at Future Needs
By Richard Tench | August 2017
I hope this letter finds you well and that all of you have taken the summer to relax and recharge for this coming school year. In July, I joined state leaders from across the country for Leadership Development Institute and Delegate Assembly to discuss the future of school counseling and analyze the changes required for school counselors to meet the growing needs of our students. Take a moment and consider the current reality of your students, your school and your community. What are the current needs? How are you helping meet these needs? The answers to these questions will be different for each counselor across our state because no two schools or communities express identical needs. Now I pose the question, what does the future of school counseling entail? How will your students look five to 10 years from now? What will we as school counselors change about our programs to meet the needs of the students who will walk our halls in the next 10 years? In short, how will school counselors bridge the gap between our current reality and our future reality?
For the ASCA national conference, more than 3,300 school counselors convened in Denver, Colo., where we were challenged to Relate, Reflect, Realize and Recharge on our comprehensive school counseling programs. On Monday evening of the ASCA conference, I joined 103 other counseling programs from across the nation to receive the Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) designation for St. Albans High School. I spent much of my summer Reflecting and Recharging after spending multiple years working toward transforming my comprehensive school counseling program into a program that meets the RAMP criteria. Working toward the RAMP designation for my comprehensive school counseling program has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. The impact that I, and my colleagues, have had over the past few years on our students, school and community is vital to continued growth.
During this time, we have seen growth from students, teachers and, more important, ourselves as counselors as we promoted systemic change in our school. During the process of collaborating with teachers and stakeholders, identifying needs and collecting data, we became a more competent and stronger counseling department. Although our focus was on the needs of the student body, the RAMP process pushed us out of our comfort zones and challenged us to become better counselors. My hope for all schools in the state is that we examine our needs and work on making stronger, more complete comprehensive school counseling programs that are aligned with the ASCA National Model. The process of working toward the RAMP designation will allow for systemic change in your school, provide comprehensive school counseling for your students, and provide you as counselor the tools necessary to become more effective in your field. My goal is to join one – or more – of you in Los Angeles during the 2018 ASCA conference as you receive your RAMP Award.
Contact Richard Tench, WVSCA president, at Rtench@mail.kana.k12.wv.us.
During this time, we have seen growth from students, teachers and, more important, ourselves as counselors as we promoted systemic change in our school. During the process of collaborating with teachers and stakeholders, identifying needs and collecting data, we became a more competent and stronger counseling department. Although our focus was on the needs of the student body, the RAMP process pushed us out of our comfort zones and challenged us to become better counselors. My hope for all schools in the state is that we examine our needs and work on making stronger, more complete comprehensive school counseling programs that are aligned with the ASCA National Model. The process of working toward the RAMP designation will allow for systemic change in your school, provide comprehensive school counseling for your students, and provide you as counselor the tools necessary to become more effective in your field. My goal is to join one – or more – of you in Los Angeles during the 2018 ASCA conference as you receive your RAMP Award.
Contact Richard Tench, WVSCA president, at Rtench@mail.kana.k12.wv.us.