All gender identities and sexual orientations are welcome here. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Media
Learn more about Core College Consulting from our collaborations with friends and colleagues.
Podcasts
We discuss a number of critical things trans youth, their counselors and caregivers should know as they navigate the college admission process, including:
The importance of understanding student information systems at your school
How to ensure safety in gendered spaces on campus
The value of offering, or improving trans-specific counseling services
Conversation starters for teachers, counselors, and administrators
How to research colleges
How can we, as counselors, parents and caring humans build a supportive and inclusive environment for those in the LGBTQ+ community? Especially transgender youth? We sat down with Cyndy to talk about what barriers counselors can help lift for transgender students, and how to foster a supportive environment.
Want to learn a little more about Shannon? In this profile, she goes into her history, philosophy, and practice as an independent consultant, and how her whole child college counseling™ approach focuses on synthesizing a holistic view of the self for the college application journey, helping students and families reduce stress throughout the process while also helping them come to terms with personal identity and various educational needs.
Publications
IECA Insights Journal
My approach of “whole-child college counseling” means that I invite students to engage and participate in this relationship in an authentic and genuine way (and recognize and respect that vulnerability), have fun throughout the journey, and to reduce stress and anxiety as much as possible.
I had the pleasure to co-write an article focused on student-centered college counseling, a model that has developed out of 20 years of working with teenagers as a School Counselor.
Summer Melt Initiative
In 2014, I was a leader of the “Summer Melt” initiative, a partnership with Austin ISD, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. We were tasked with reaching out to and meeting with students from Title I schools over the summer. We knew that about 30% of these students who intended to attend college that fall would never begin. We followed these students throughout the summer and helped push through barriers like meningitis vaccines, housing issues, gaps in financial aid, and family pressures to stay home.
At the end of the first summer, I wrote the story of one of those students, and the challenges he faced to get to the University of Houston. The committee was so moved by this story that both the American School Counselor Association magazine and the Austin American Statesman published a feature article about the program and this young man. I believe this helped the grant funding continue for a second year.
AISD Staff Spotlight
The Austin Independent School District employs more than 200 counselors who serve our 129 campuses daily. AISD counselors play a tremendous role in helping our students achieve success and plan for the future.
On the eve of National School Counselors Week, Feb. 4-8, MyAISD sits down with one the district's talented counselors to learn the ins and outs of her job, what inspired her to become a counselor and what she loves most about serving AISD students.