President’s Letter: Standing for All Students

I hope you are having a productive and successful academic school year. During this season, we want to focus on equality for all. As school counselors, we are expected to serve all students. When we collaborate with administrators, teachers and families and prepare our school counseling activities to work with all students, we want to ensure equity. If there is not equity in a school, the school counselor should be a leader in advocating for all students.

To effectively advocate for all students in the school, the school counselor should first do a self-assessment to identify cultural competency areas that might need improvements. After identifying such areas, you should find resources that help to increase your knowledge on counseling students from diverse backgrounds and how their needs differ. The school counselor should also identify activities that will help them learn about different cultures, such as:

• visiting churches of different denominations
• attending meetings with diverse groups that are unfamiliar to you
• volunteering at schools where the students and faculty are different from your school’s population
• collaborating with school counselors from diverse backgrounds
• having open and genuine conversations with colleagues from diverse backgrounds

Everyone school counselor areas in which they can make improvements to become more culturally competent. I ask that you to think about your areas for improvement. I challenge you to address your own biases and advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves.

I leave you with words of wisdom from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the best advocates for justice and equality: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Where do you stand in this time of challenge and controversy?