Workshops/Presentations

9:20 am – 10:30 am
 
When Grief Comes to School: Preparing your loss toolkit
Amy Steele, Principal, Miller Middle School, Cupertino Union School District
When grief comes to school, Counselors must make quick decisions to support the students, parents, and staff. During this session, attendees will obtain templates and ideas to support their school and administrators in the unfortunate event of loss at school. This session is uniquely focused on the loss of a school community member, such as a student or teacher.


Exponential Leadership: Creating Counselor Leaders
Juan Mendoza-Romero, PPS, CWA, Ed.D. and Roberto Nunez, Ed.D., College & Career Readiness Administrator, Monterey County Office of Education
By the end of the session, participants will have learned the different ways that they can become leaders not just at their school but also at the district level. Being a leader will allow them to accomplish a great counseling program and at the same time have the opportunity to serve not just the students, but the teachers, classified staff, and the community. The participants will have the opportunity to collaborate with others to find out their leadership style and how that leadership style can be successfully utilized to bring together parents and community agencies to better assist students succeed in school.
 

Trauma-Informed Educators: How to Advocate, Educate, and Collaborate to Help Children Learn
Emily Ritchey, School Counselor, Calabasas High School
If kids don’t feel safe, they can’t learn! Their brain literally can’t process information because it is too busy trying to convince itself that it is safe and will survive. Educators need to understand how trauma impacts our ability to learn, and how our student’s responses in their behavior may be telling us something about what they need. This session will inform Counselors about the impact of traumatic experiences on the brain, and empower them to address this growing need within our school communities with relevant techniques and resources they can bring back to campus.


Reducing Stigmas around Mental Health Issues for Students, School Staff and Parents
Monika Howard & Alicia Turner, Program Specialist-Student Support Services and Eduationally Related Mental Health Therapist, San Juan Unified School District
The presenters have created opportunities for awareness and understanding of Mental Health through classroom interventions, staff trainings and parent academies for the purpose of reducing the stigma around mental health. This has supported students in seeking the services they need, helped educators understand the students that arrive at their classroom door and allowed parents to learn what are and are not mental health concerns for their children. Attendees will learn why it's necessary to include all three populations in this initiative, what resources we created or used and how to seek community resources in funding or collaborating with this important task.


How to Organize and Use Data to Advocate for Your Role as a Counselor and Your Comprehensive School Counseling Program
Jordan Blevins & Tara Vargas, Elementary School Counselors, Stockton Unified School District
Data is such an integral part of the comprehensive school counseling program, and an important piece in advocacy for counselors to avoid assignment of non-counseling duties. In this session, you will learn how to use google drive to organize, log, and present your own data in order to advocate for your program. You will also learn how to navigate CA School Dashboard, in order to find your own data. Access to a google folder with templates and other information will also be given so you are able to begin organizing and tracking right away!


Educator Self-Care
Anne Contreras, Director of Programs, Pure Edge Foundation
School stress is real. While some stress can be helpful, too much can overwhelm, leading to burnout. Educator Self-Care (ESC), an open education resource aligned to the WSCC framework, helps educators and learners be their best despite school stress by teaching simple exercises to support focus, manage stress and alleviate burnout. Aligned with both ASCA National Standards and CASEL SEL competencies. Participants will leave the workshop feeling great, supported and empowered to integrate ESC in their schools.


Migrant and Immigrant Students and Families: What we need to know as School Counselors and How to help them Succeed
Vanessa Witrago, School Counselor, Paramount Unified School District
In dealing with the chaos of our political climate, school counselors must be responsive and ethically equitable in providing our immigrant and migrant students and families with culturally appropriate school counseling services for their success. Attendees will learn multicultural counseling best practices, how to initiate and establish a safe school and counseling climate, and how to provide outside support in relation to working with immigrant and migrant students and families. Information will be presented from a practitioner based experience, alongside with information from the American Psychology Association research journals as well as collaboration working with the Border Angels non profit organization based in California. Handouts and a PowerPoint presentation will be provided to attendees.


Building an Effective Team
Sarah Slemmons, School Counselor, Culver City Middle School
In this session you will learn how to collaborate with other counselors at your school site or within your district. Walk away with tools that help you get organized, capitalize on strengths, and bolster weak areas of your team. This session will focus on creative and simple ways to establish cohesiveness within the team while infusing fun into your work day and create culture with your colleagues.


SESSION II
10:45 am – 11:55 am
 
Supporting Career Readiness with CalCRN Resources
John Merris-Coots, Education Programs Consultant, California Department of Education
Session attendees will learn how California Career Resource Network (CalCRN) resources can be used to help students assess their career related interests, identify occupational options, and relate their school experiences to career goals. Engaging students in effective career exploration can support student and school success on the California School Dashboard. Session handout will provide a summary overview of all CalCRN resources.


National Board Certification: Unlocking “The Why” of our Practice
Jennifer Soliz, Gladys Dalmau, Dawn Woehl, San Francisco Unified School District
This Session outlines how counselors can begin the steps to become a Nationally Board Certified Counselor, the benefits of certification, and what it can do for your school community by demonstrating high standards of practice in the profession. National Board data will be given to discuss how to increase the number of certified counselors in California to impact student success. Presenters will talk about their personal journey through National Board certification, review what is required of a candidate seeking certification, and engage participants in practicing certain National Board components such as sample selected response questions and practice written response prompts.


A Comprehensive Approach to Bullying Prevention
Joanna Aragon, School Counselor, Pittsburg Unified School District
This presentation will offer attendees the opportunity to learn how to create a comprehensive Bullying Prevention program at their school site. The presenter will share resources, activities, a lesson plan, and a step-by-step plan to get your Bullying Prevention Program started. Participants will leave with a plan to create their program, handouts with resources to help with the program, and a lesson plan and programs that can enhance the program.


What’s New in the ASCA National Model 4th Edition
Amanda Fitzgerald, Director of Public Policy, American School Counseling Association
Since 2003, the ASCA National Model has had tremendous impact on the school counseling profession. But students, schools and school counselors change, and the ASCA National Model has been updated to provide the most effective direction for the development of comprehensive school counseling programs. Come to this session to learn about changes that are a part of the 4th edition of the ASCA National Model.


Aligning School Counseling with MTSS
Maiko Xiong, Assistant Professor, California State University, Sacramento
The goal is to help school counselors recognize the alignment of school counseling activities in a multi-tiered system of supports. Information will be presented on the outcome support of utilizing a comprehensive school counseling program model, and the call of school counselors to engage in best practices of responding from a comprehensive school counseling model.


Mindfulness in the Classroom - For Students by Students
Greg Ortiz, Wellness Counselor, Valley High School, Elk Grove Unified School District
Develop a program whereby the benefits of mindful meditation can be offered to a wide audience as it is delivered to students by students. Allow time in the class to relieve anxiety, encourage concentration, and start to mitigate the effects of trauma with the added benefit of lowering suspension rates and violence on campus. During this presentation the history, science, and current research of the benefits of mindful meditation will be discussed. Session participants will receive a "starter packet" containing references to research and mindfulness lessons to start their own program.


Hip Hop: A Bridge To The Future For Our Youth
Dion Chavis, Owner/Founder, The Glad Dad, LLC
This workshop equips participants with the tools to effectively connect with and instruct students of color regardless of participants' own racial/ethnic background. Moreover, this workshop not only addresses the importance of meeting students where they are, it also explores the effects that stereotype threat has on the achievement gap as demonstrated by Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson in 1995. During the workshop participants will identify ways to reduce stereotype threat, create identity safe classrooms, and help students achieve higher test scores and increase graduation rates.


DISC Model of Human Behavior: A Powerful Way to Connect with Students & Colleagues
Ken Gompert, Professional School Counselor; NLP Practitioner; Anaheim High School District and Adjunct Faculty in Human Development at CSUF
Almost daily school counselors help students, parents, teachers, administrators and co-counselors negotiate and relate with one another. What if you had a simple and quick way of assessing one’s personality style and from that provide concrete strategies to help people enhance their way of relating to others. Knowing the DISC personality styles equips you with the knowledge and strategies necessary to enhance personal and professional relationships. Based on the work of American psychologist and self-help author William Marston, DISC provides a simple model of human behavior that will, without a doubt, change the way you counsel and relate to others. By the end of this session, you will have learned the basics of the DISC theory and be ready to apply it to ALL aspects of your life. This session will cover the distinctions of each style, ways to recognize them through observation, and strategies that you can teach to your students, equip your teachers, and strengthen your own guidance teams. In the end, you will be provided with an easy to follow infographic to help organize your learning for future reference.


SESSION III
2:00 pm – 3:10 pm
 
College and Career Readiness, but are YOU ready?
Amy Fargo, School Counselor, Calipatria High School
School counselors play a pivotal role serving as a pillar of accountability for the California Dashboard through the College and Career Readiness Indicator. Through precise, individual monitoring and data analysis, systemic change can be made to ultimately increase your level of students who graduate as college and career ready. Of course, all of your efforts may fall flat if not reported correctly through CALPADS and your SIS, do not forget to follow up! The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate how a small, rural public high school has done just such and you how you can do it too!


Preparing School Counselors to Work with Students in Foster Care
Lorri M. Capizzi, Counselor Education Adjunct Faculty, San Jose State University; Catherine Davis, Master's Candidate, San Jose State University
The purpose of the session is to inform pre-service school counselors on the unique needs of students in foster care. The session will highlight strategies to increase academic outcomes and access to postsecondary educational opportunities. Research findings will be presented from a study completed with former foster youth who are enrolled in a 4-year university on their experiences with their school counselors. The study included interview questions that addressed relationships and supports critical to access and enrollment in college.


Communities of Practice: A Leadership Tool for Learning School Counselor Role
Karla I. Aguirre, Ed.D., School Counselor, Moreno Valley Unified School District
Novice school counselors have struggled to learn their role in relation to the core education program in schools. Based upon the practitioner researcher’s recent study, this presentation offers the opportunity to discuss, process and learn about leadership for school counselor induction at the micro community of practice and macro site and district levels.


Neuroplasticity Hacks: How Counselors Can Rewire Student's Neurons
Ken Gompert, Professional School Counselor; NLP Practitioner; Anaheim High School District and Adjunct Faculty in Human Development at CSUF
Often times educators focus much on changing the ways students behave, rather than how they should think. Neuroplasticity, on the other hand, promotes mindset shifts, as it simply believes the brain (neuro) is changeable (plastic). Abundant amount of research supports that every time we think, feel, or experience something, we strengthen a specific neural pathway. This is how habits are efficiently and effectively formed. Through understanding the science behind neural pathways, counselors can, even in their brief sessions with students, help to rewire their students’ neural pathways through the use of conversation. In this session you will be provided with specific techniques you can apply during counseling sessions with students that will help change their thinking on a neural level. This session focuses on enhancing your counseling skills with students.


Comprehensive School Counseling Program Advocacy through Supervision
Molly Strear, Ph.D., Counselor Educator, San Francisco State University and Angela Tang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator, University of San Francisco
Ongoing and effective supervision is integral for maintaining high quality school counseling practices that foster student success and align with the 2019 PPSC standards. Participants will learn fundamental supervision models and best practices for providing culturally responsive, constructive, and collaborative supervision for school counseling practicum and internship students. Participants will receive materials to structure a supervisory relationship, translating school counseling supervision theory into practice.


Lean Into The Discomfort: Seeing Students Through a Trauma-Informed Lens
Loren Dittmar, Ph.D., School Counselor, Simi Valley High School
School Mental Health has become an area of increased attention in the public eye. Recent legislation has mandated protocols and preventative measures, and the opportunity for school counselors to lead the way has emerged! So, the question is, are you ready? From anxiety and depression to grief and loss to abuse and neglect to overwhelming stress and deep rejection (and much more), our students need more and more support from a lens that is deeply attuned to emotional challenges they face. This Trauma-Informed lens can be taught, strengthened, and spread. Join this session to build deeper capacity for your own lens, as well as how you can train all staff in your school to go beyond the surface and truly see each child from a magnified empathic lens.


You Are Welcome Here! Supporting Your Newcomer Students
Elizabeth Paniagua, Post-Secondary Readiness Coordinator, Oakland Unified School District; Jizabel Navarrete, School Counselor, Oakland Unified School District
Newcomers are a growing and important part of our school communities! In this session, we will review important terms like what is a newcomer, English Language Learner, and Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth. We will explore some of the struggles and successes Oakland Unified School District and Oakland International High School have experienced. Review best practices for supporting your newcomer students to adjust to their new school environment, achieve academic success, encourage parent/guardian engagement, and support social-emotional wellness. We will discuss best practices and review how you can make your school community and school counseling program inclusive to newcomers.


The POWER of Peer Leaders: You Cannot do The Work to Help Youth Without Youth Helping to do The Work!
Jillian Glende, School Counselor Program Specialist, Stockton Unified School District
Finally, EVIDENCE BASED peer programs that school counselors can engage youth in to help change school climate and culture. Student leaders in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) programs, such as Peer Leaders Uniting Students (PLUS), utilize data and restorative practices to address school climate issues affecting their peers. Counselors will walk away with student-led MTSS strategies and resources used by Stockton USD that five universities have found to be effective in engaging youth to make site and district-level changes.


SESSION IV
3:20 pm – 4:30 pm
 
Implementing K-12 College and Career Readiness Resources for Success in Today's Global Economy
Gladys E. Recinos, Account Executive and Krista Dornbush, ACT, Inc.
The goal of this session is to provide counselors resources and strategies that help learners nurture the skills and habits needed to effectively navigate today’s education and work systems. Participants will consider how incorporating surveys, open educational resources, and a post-secondary mindset throughout K-12 leads to building a college and career readiness culture. Takeaways: handouts, link to PPT presentation, access to ACT no-cost resources and best practices.


Boys Will Be X? Interrogating Our Assumptions about Gender, Masculinities, and Student Success
Jason A. Laker, Ph.D., Professor, Counselor Education, San Jose State University
There is a large collection of available literature and research about masculine role socialization and gender identity development, but it’s rarely included in Counselor Education preparation programs. Our complex experiences with male-identified students--whether related to retention, academic success, or disciplinary issues—are connected to their gendered psychosocial development. We claim to be social-emotional learning specialists, but practitioners rarely have training in male-identified students’ gender development, nor gender-informed practices to foster their learning and success. This session will provide a foundation for attendees to enhance their practice with male-identified students.
 

Supporting K-12 Students’ Mental Health through Grief Counseling
Aubrey Uresti, Instructor, University of California Berkeley Extension; Suzy Thomas, Ph.D., Professor and Department Chair, Counseling Department, Saint Mary’s College of California
Grief is a complex issue that has a dramatic impact on students. School counselors serve students who are grieving due to death or suicide of a loved one, deportation of family members, trauma, and other losses. Grief work is effective in groups, which are normalizing, comforting, and meaningful to students. One-on-one counseling is also vital in the grieving process. School-based/community violence, as well as individual/personal losses, make this topic timely for school counseling programs. This presentation will provide theoretical frameworks for understanding and counseling grief, introduce creative, theory-based activities for K-12 grief counseling, and discuss suggestions for school counselors’ own grief work.


A Research-Driven Framework to Increase Access to Financial Aid
Jose Cardenas, Ed.D., School Counselor Program Specialist, Stockton Unified School District; Tyler Wu, Senior Policy Analyst, Trust Ed West
California educates approximately 1 out of every 10 K-12 students in the nation and has more students graduating from high school than any other state, and yet thousands of eligible students miss out on the financial aid they are entitled to receive. The lack of a statewide policy that ensures students complete a financial aid application before graduating also contributes to racial and economic equity gaps in financial aid access throughout California. While some schools and districts have high FAFSA/Dream Act application completion rates, there are far too many schools with predominantly low-income students and students of color where application completion rates are abysmally low. Come to this presentation to learn more about a statewide solution to close racial equity gaps in education and how we can better serve California’s students.


Advocating Legally and Ethically for Marginalized Youth
Carolyn Stone, Ed.D., University of North Florida
School counselors can be powerful strategists when applying legal muscle to problems that impact the educational environment.  Federal and case law can protect marginalized youth, yet, there are still laws that can hinder counselors’ advocacy efforts.  Intervening on behalf of students is infinitely easier if there is a law that provides leverage.  This session focuses on the rights of students who are gay or transgender, students in foster care, pregnant students, victims of dating violence, sexual harassment. or bullying.  Legal understanding coupled with our ethical imperative to advocate is a formidable combination and increases the odds that counselors will have sway in systemic change and individual support.
 Attendees will: 1. Increase their knowledge of federal, state, and case law that are pivotal in supporting their advocacy work with marginalized youth; 2. Apply their knowledge to hypothetical cases and transfer their knowledge to their own practice.


Trauma Informed Counseling
Annya Artigas, Coordinator of Mental Wellness Support Services, Alum Rock Union Elementary School District
School Counselors are tasked with providing support to an increasingly diverse student population with various needs. Providing support for trauma-impacted students creates a layer of complexity in the work & can often negatively impact counselor self-care practice. During the course of this workshop, participants will be provided with information regarding trauma’s impact on the developing brain, manifestations in behavior, & the importance of practicing continuous and compassionate self-care to avoid empathy fatigue or counselor burnout.


Learn more about Restorative Practices!
Amy Dauble-Madigan, Elementary School Counselor, Culver City Unified School District
Participants will understand how restorative practices is integrated in the school community. The presentation will include information on restorative practices and why blame, shame and punishment isn't working for our students or our communities and have a better understanding of collaborative problem solving.


Bringing Out Students Greatness Using the Nurtured Heart Approach
Kou Her, School Counselor, Yosemite High School
Establishing positive relationships is vital in working with students. Learn how the Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) is used by counselors to develop positive relationships and bring out students’ inner greatness. NHA is effective in all school counseling domains and especially in creating transformative changes in intense students, such as those with ADHD, ODD, anxiety, reactive attachment disorder, and self-injurious behavior. Come learn this positive approach to empower your students.

*Subject to change.