The virtual world of counselors Students on and off campus recieve free advice through video chat

For those who cannot set the time aside to travel to Pierce, receiving counseling is often not an option. However, a new online service is offering students the ability to speak with counselors from the comfort of their own homes.

Pierce College offers students an online counseling software called Cranium Café that allows them to meet with their counselors virtually.

Students can find the Cranium Café software through the “counseling” tab in the school’s website. They can create a free account with their student ID that allows them to start making FaceTime-like virtual appointments.

Although this is a free online tool for Pierce, some students aren’t aware that they have this option, and few counselors have started using it.

General counselor Lily Duong received training for the software and said it wasn’t complicated. Although she still prefers that students meet with her face to face to create a comprehensive education plan, she uses Cranium Café to counsel students who cannot physically attend school.

However, there are some disadvantages to using Cranium

Café. More than one appointment is necessary to complete everything students need, and completing paperwork can be complicated online.

“The face-to-face online is great. But as a long-term, sometimes there’s certain things that I haven’t been able to do online, like transcript evaluations,” Duong said. International students’ counselor Abby Watson uses Cranium Café to communicate with international students who are enrolled at Pierce, but haven’t yet arrived in the country. Watson said the Wi-Fi signal is an