Life has a way of spilling onto our academic pursuits.
How we manage the emotional, social, physical, spiritual, as well as the intellectual aspects of our lives can lead to scholastic success, or failure. Armed with its holistic approach to individual counseling and workshop activities, the Counseling Services Department aims at success, despite a bulging 26,000-student population and only two and a half counselors to service them.
“We would like the students to know that we offer help with educational, emotional and personal issues. Not many students know we provide all of those services,” said Dr. Bobby Beavers, head of the Counseling Services Department.
Eric Henderson, full-time department counselor, added that emotional and mental health issues are a priority. He explained that he is a licensed mental health counselor and deals with crisis intervention providing referrals to community agencies, if needed.
A visit to Counseling Services starts with the intake process that hones in on the individual’s needs by having the student complete two questionnaires called inventories. These are completed prior to scheduling a counseling session. The inventories help students take stock of their strengths and weaknesses, and their challenges and barriers to success. The Wellness Components and Student Success Inventories are in house, developed tools derived from years of research, plus student and instructor input, Beavers said.
“All of the counseling services are of a confidential nature, no sign-in sheets,” Beavers added. Armed with the two inventories, the student and the counselor meet, set goals and develop an action plan.
The Wellness Components Inventory is the student’s assessment in the areas of intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual and physical health. There are six wellness indicators under the five wellness sections, explained Beavers. If students are doing well in a certain area, they check it. A low number of check marks indicate an area in which improvement is needed.
Additionally, students rate themselves on the Student Success Inventory in eight areas—balance, capability, critical thinking, goal setting, motivation, emotional intelligence, responsibility, and healthy relationships. These are scored on a scale of 1 through 10. High scores signal problem areas and will be addressed in the student’s action plan, according to Beavers.
“Everything we do is done with the holistic approach. We try to help the students in a holistic way, including our workshops,” said Beavers.
Data is collected through surveys students complete at counseling sessions and workshops. Counseling Services uses the data to determine the learning outcomes of its products and to develop future workshops, according to Beavers.
“I’m curious about the procrastination workshop. I think I could benefit from that,” said Christine Hobbs, 20, a Communication major.
She’s not the only one. According to program coordinator Anthony Webb, it’s one of the top three workshops students attend. The other two are on time management and facing fear. Math anxiety is another workshop with good attendance numbers.
Sometimes workshops or groups are more effective for certain concerns, according to a Counseling Services hand out. Throughout each quarter, workshops on a variety of holistic topics are held during the lunch hour. Some workshops are also available online at www.sinclair.edu/support/counseling/workshoplinks/index.cfm.
Each term, 1,000 to 1,200 students have GPAs of less than 2.0 and are placed on academic intervention, according to Beavers. In the summer term, there were 400. To help those students, Counseling Services presents the Academic Intervention Workshop.
Notification to attend the workshop is sent via e-mail. The e-mail includes the workshop schedule and a link designed for student input for the workshop’s agenda. Yet attendance at the workshops is low. Twenty to 25 register and only five or six actually attended each workshop, said Beavers.
“Those that sign up and participate do better than those that don’t participate. Even though it’s a small number, it has impact on those students,” said Beavers.
Re-admit Services is yet another part of Counseling Services. Academic Advising refers names of students previously suspended for academic issues who now seek re-admission. A holistic action plan is completed and student progress is tracked.
“Fewer students keep appointments than make them, however,” said Beavers. “Students who are seeing counselors have a higher grade point average than those that don’t. We track GPAs at the end of each term. The issue is that we just don’t have enough staff.”
They were able to see 400 of the 700 referred last spring. He added that they would like to see students two or three times.
One success story for Counseling Services has been its collaboration with some of the chairs within the Life and Health Sciences Division. Counseling Services has been working with the chairs of Dental Hygiene, Physical Therapy Assistance, Dietetic and Nutrition Management and Respiratory Care departments to incorporate holistic action plans during orientation at the beginning of the year for students to follow throughout the term.
The departments have set specific goals for their students. One department’s goal was to lower first year attrition rate. Another goal was achieving a specific attrition range. And a third department’s goal was achieving a specific class pass rate of 80 percent with 3.0 GPAs.
“I am very excited about this. I have been happy to see these students succeed,” said Beavers.
For more information, contact the Counseling Services Department, Building 10, Room 10424, (937) 512-2752, www.sinclair.edu/support/counseling, Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Upcoming workshops and discussion groups:
Addiction Discussion Group, Nov. 9, 16, 23, Noon – 1:30 p.m., Building 10, Room 10423
Test Taking Strategies, Nov. 10, Noon – 1 p.m., Building 7, Room 7342