Leading the Way, Every Day

National School Counseling Week is a wonderful time to recognize the leadership of counselors in your school, your district, the state of Colorado and across the nation. ASCA does such an amazing job at showcasing the wonderful work that school counselor leaders are doing at all levels through the ASCA School Counselor of the Year awards. Seeing the impact school counselors have on their schools and communities is so cool. I am continually encouraged by the work of Colorado school counselors and love that we get to recognize them with our own School Counselor of the Year award. We have some truly amazing colleagues here in Colorado! I hope that during this season (or any time of year) you take time to reflect on and celebrate the great things that you and your department are doing on behalf of students every day!

In our article “From Doer to Leader” by Anita Young, Ph.D., she encourages counselors to take on a more active leadership role. She writes, “Two basic principles transform a school counselor from a doer to a leader. First is acknowledging you have all the capacity and power to lead. Identifying your own leadership characteristics and style, coupled with the presence of effective leadership practices, is essential to build a sustainable school counseling program.”

I feel that many school counselors are quick to disregard the capacity they have to be a leader, yet we are leaders in our school every day!  Young also shares that “School counselor leaders propel above doing because they also know how to collaborate with others to resolve problems.” Leadership can be as simple as that, collaborating with stakeholders and resolving problems, which we do every day. Take some time to read through all of the articles in this issue of our newsletter – we have so much great information on leadership.

If you have ever had the desire to serve in a leadership role with CSCA, please reach out and let us know how we can help get you connected. We have so many ways to get involved with varying levels of commitment, besides serving on the CSCA Board or on one of our awesome committees. Two of our growing programs are the Emerging Leaders Program, which supports rising leaders in the school counseling profession and cultivates opportunities to expand leadership development, and the Mentorship Program that pairs veteran counselors with newly licensed school counselors.

As we begin the ever-crazy sprint to the end of the year, keep doing the amazing, hard but oh-so-necessary things you do on behalf of your students and staff every day. And remember, you are all leaders in the education field!

Contact Kelsey Rosten, CSCA president-elect, at krosten@coloradoschoolcounselor.org.