What Counselors Do Five

This is part five of a series of roles that counselors play at City College.  Feel free to add to the list!  

Puzzle-Assembler (Kelli) – This usually happens with students who have unique situations.  (I know, you’re all unique individuals, but most situations are more similar than they are different.)  The puzzles I assemble usually start with either “I have 60-plus units.  Am I eligible for a degree?” or “I want to transfer to State as a <insert major here>, but I have all these units from out of the area.  What do I do?”  Those are pretty straightforward.  The fun ones, though, start with, “I want to open a halfway house for at-risk teens.  I don’t need a specific degree because I’ve got qualified people lined up to do the counseling/social work part and I have no interest in a business degree, but I want a degree from City.  How can I do that?”  This type of student knows exactly what their project needs (or is willing to do the research to find out), so we go over types of classes that would fulfill those needs and see if there’s some degree that fits, or if there isn’t, I help the student put together a justification for a “Selected Studies” degree, which are designed for occasions just like this one.



picture by Sage Ross



Brainstormer (Ray) – Turn off the toxic voices, the doubts, the insecurities, the “I can’t because…” statements. Let your imagination run wild for a while and let’s see what comes up.

Cartographer (Kelli) – How do you get from here to there?  Which classes do you need to finish to be admitted to X University with Y Major?  This is the academic planning piece.  I can either give you an overview of everything you need or work with you to plan each semester.  Your call.

What Counselors Do

Intro

Two

Three

Four