Personal
counseling offered
By Saira Suleman
Staff Writer
Health Center program continues through
May 6
A pilot personal counseling program, which starts
March 22 and ends May 6, is being offered at North
Lake to assess the counseling needs of the students.
Several years ago, the district hired faculty counselors
who were responsible for teaching, academic advising
and counseling. “Over the years, the role
of the faculty counselor has changed,” said
Mary Ciminelli, executive dean of student development.
With time, North Lake’s counselors either
transferred to other colleges or got involved in
administration. Currently, Diane Thorpe is the only
full time counselor at our college.
So what’s the impetus for the pilot program?
“Those of us in the student development always
felt there was a need, “ said Ciminelli. “We
are just seeing more students come to us with needs
and community resources are not as available as
they used to be.”
Numerous times faculty bring their distressed students
to the health center or contact Ciminelli or Carol
Gary, director of Disabilities Services. “We
are hearing from the students indirectly through
their contacts on campus,” Ciminelli said.
To address this need, Virginia Jones, the campus
nurse, and Gray, with Ciminelli’s help, wrote
a proposal for a pilot program and presented it
to the college president, Dr. Linda Glasscock.
“Dr. Glasscock found some money somewhere
in the budget and it’s a limited amount
of money. That’s why it is a pilot program,”
said Gray.
This program is open to current North Lake students
who can either visit A-414 or call (972) 273-3135
to setup the initial appointment after which the
office will assign a counselor to the student.
After this assignment, the counselors, who are temporarily
located in A-415L, will make appointments with the
students directly. In all, the counselors will be
available for 43 hours a week, said Gray.
Thorpe, along with two part-time counselors, Ida
Baty and Enrique Otero, will participate in this
pilot program.
So what’s the difference between these counselors
and academic advisors? Academic advisors will solely
assist the students in academics, said Ciminelli.
They will interpret the assessment tests and address
the educational goals of the students. “It’s
purely academics,” she said.
On the contrary, counselors will do confidential
personal counseling sessions, set up support group
activities like brown bag lunches or speak to
students about stress management. “They
are not going to do academic advising,”
said Ciminelli.
They will address a range of student issues such
as relationship woes, grief and loss, loneliness,
depression, suicidal tendencies and cultural differences.
Gray said that if counselors discover that numerous
students have, for example, financial problems,
they might bring speakers for informational seminar
on financial management
However, a student can visit a counselor only twice
during this pilot program. “It’s real
important for students to understand that this is
not on-going therapy,” said Ciminelli.
Gray also emphasized that these counselors hope
to give students coping skills so they can deal
with their own problems.
How would the success of this program be measured?
The counselors will maintain a log of the number
of students they see. Furthermore, they will keep
statistics on seminars or group activities conducted
for student assistance.
In addition, Ciminelli said that counselors would
conduct faculty and student surveys to gauge the
need. “The needs are there. How much is the
volume we don’t know. That is yet to be determined,”
she said.
Armed with these statistics, Ciminelli and others
will present the data in a proposal to the president’s
team. This team, which consists of Ciminelli among
others, will look at the budget and the priorities
of the college and then make the final decision.
Students can express their support for the pilot-counseling
program through letters to the student government
or through e-mail to Ciminelli at mgc7341@dccd.edu.
If the student response shows that the pilot program
is a success, students might hope to see it this
fall.
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Mary Ciminelli, executive
dean of student development
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