FALL 2014
COUNSELOR education School Counseling Summit
November 3 Topic: College and Career Readiness of Black Males Following a brief overview by Paul Harris, we will host a panel discussion with local Black male K-16 youth. Youth will each speak for five minutes about specific factors associated with their successful development in the academic, emotional, social or career areas. A facilitated Q & A session will follow, and specific programs designed to promote the success of this group will be highlighted. Admission is free. For more information and to register: http:// tinyurl.com/UVASummit
Counselor Education is published by the Curry School of Education, P.O. Box 400260, Charlottesville, VA 22904 http://curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter
/// Curry counselor education faculty: Paul Harris, Antoinette Thomas, Blaire Cholewa, Amanda Flora, and Derick Williams.
Program Updates
T
he counselor education program continues to clarify its focus on school counseling through the refining of the curriculum and strengthened relationships with Virginia schools. Under the leadership of Derick Williams, program director, this year’s program has grown to 31 students in the first-year cohort, a substantial increase from the six in last year’s class. Our goals are to provide high-quality training for our school counseling students through inventive programming and to the counseling community through professional development and alternative degree/certificate opportunities. We are excited to welcome Blaire Cholewa (Col ’03) to the counselor education faculty. “I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to return to U.Va. and join the amazing team of counselor educators and the wonderful group of professionals in the Curry School,” Dr. Cholewa says. Although she is a Virginia native, she hails to us via New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2003 with her bachelor’s degree in psychology and religious studies. After a year working in a boy’s home in Baltimore with AmeriCorps, she headed south to pursue her master’s degree in school counseling and doctorate degree in counselor education at the University of Florida in Gainesville. After the sun of Florida, she traveled north to the snow of New Jersey. She has spent the last five years as an assistant professor in the Counselor Education Department at Kean University in Union. While at Kean she taught Research, Counseling Skills, Counseling Children and Adolescents, and Practicum and Internship, as well as serving as the CACREP liaison and as the chair of the University Curriculum Committee. “I immediately recognized the kindred spirits between Blaire and our faculty,” says Derick Williams. “The personal and professional values we share lay the foundation for helping us educate and develop personally and professionally competent school counselors. Her research focus on culturally responsive education fits with our goals of educational equity and increasing academic and developmental achievement for all students. We are excited to have her join our team and our efforts. Her work is a key part of the success of the school counseling program.” C O U N S E L O R E D U C AT I O N • FA L L 2 0 1 4
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