President’s Letter: Sharing Knowledge, Honoring Excellence

Thank you to all of you who attended the NJSCA Fall Conference on October 3 and 4 at the Pines Manor in Edison…and there were a lot of you! With about 400 people in attendance, many of whom registered on the spot, this was our largest Fall Conference to date. Attendees on Thursday evening heard David Nash speak about emerging legal issues that impact school counselors, and Friday’s participants had the opportunity to attend Dr. Maurice Elias’ keynote on social/emotional Learning and the future of school counseling. Handouts/PowerPoints that any presenter provided to NJSCA are linked on our Fall Conference website and are a valuable resource for any school counselor, whether you were able to attend or not.
 
We presented three awards at the Fall Conference to amazing school counselors and administrators:

• Jill Marie Kuppel is our New Jersey School Counselor of the Year. Jill has led the Estell Manor School District to receive the prestigious RAMP (Recognized ASCA Model Program) recognition from the American School Counselor Association. She had been a part-time school counselor, but after compiling data and advocating for programs and students, Jill was moved to a full-time school counselor in the 2016–2017 school year. Jill also serves as the president of the Cape-Atlantic School Counselor Association. We wish Jill all the best as she competes for the National School Counselor of the Year award.
• Dana Folcarelli and Christopher Nutland from East Brook Middle School in Paramus were awarded the Excellency in Responsive Services Award for the tremendous impact they made in their school community following the tragic bus accident in 2018. We applaud these two excellent counselors for their hard work, dedication, initiative and for the difference they make in the lives of those around them.
• Finally, Principal Thomas LoBue and Assistant Principal Ryan Aupperlee accepted the Most Resilient School Award on behalf of East Brook Middle School. We recognized and commended the entire team for their outstanding leadership and tremendous response to crisis. School counselors, child study team members and support staff worked tirelessly to ensure that students’ needs were met, and the administration went above and beyond to coordinate the massive response efforts in the wake of the losses. We are inspired by the bravery and courage shown by the East Brook Middle School community in a time of such tragedy, and we commend them for facilitating the efforts to come together as a community to mend, heal and support one another.

Again, we congratulate and commend this year’s award winners, and we thank school counselors and administrators around the state for their continued support of NJSCA.
 
Contact Jillian Shadis, NJSCA president 2019–2020, at jshadis@npsdnj.org.