Program Overview
The Post Master’s Certificate in Supporting Immigrant Students for Professional School Counselors currently operates exclusively through a school district partnership with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS). Participants must be PGCPS employees, have approval from the district to enroll in the program and hold a master’s degree in school counseling.
Program activities will focus on (a) helping students and families manage family trauma, post-traumatic stress, culture shock and poverty, as well as (b) promoting students’ health, well-being, English language acquisition, acculturation, academic achievement and socioemotional growth and development. The courses will teach professional school counselors about U.S. immigration policy and the migration process. Courses will also inform participants of the unique trauma that can occur during migration and its lasting impacts on student learning.
Key Features:
- Courses focus on the specialized and complex needs of immigrant and/or refugee students.
- Curriculum equips professional school counselors with the knowledge and skills needed to help students and families manage trauma, post-traumatic stress, culture shock and poverty, while also promoting students’ health, well-being, English language acquisition, academic achievements and socioemotional growth and development.
Learning Goals
Learning Goals
Upon successful completion of our program, graduates will have mastered the following competencies:
- Enhance knowledge of English language acquisition and cross-cultural teaching approaches and recognize how differences between the U.S. and other nations’ educational counseling systems require modification of evidenced-based counseling practices in the U.S. to meet specific and unique immigrant student and family needs.
- Accelerate the development of immigrant students’ educational, career, social, emotional and personal skills through individual counselor-student meetings.
- Gain insight into how county immigration policies have influenced immigrant student and family well-being, growth and development subsequent post-high school career paths, as a basis for modifying policies to enhance current and future students’ equity of access to and benefit from county services.
- Understand the cultural and family dynamics of diverse immigrant families, build trust and partnerships with families, and deliver culturally appropriate counseling interventions.
- Increase sensitivity to the diversity of immigrant students, especially intersecting identities of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, ability/disability, culture, sexual orientation and immigration status, and incorporate this understanding into counseling strategies that maximize health, mental health, acculturation and achievement.
How to Apply
How to Apply
This program is only open to PGCPS employees. Applicants must have a master’s degree prior to admission and should use specialization code Z171 when applying. Information on admissions and application to this program can be found on the University Graduate Admissions website.
Program Requirements
Program Requirements
Our program follows a cohort model and students are expected to take courses in sequence with their cohort. Courses can be taken one semester at a time, consecutively. The four 3-credit courses are offered each in sequence, each semester, with two courses offered in Summer Session (one per 6-week session). Courses include:
- TLPL 788: Special Topics in Education: Immigration and Education
- TLPL 440: Issues in the Education of English Language Learners
- EDCP 655: Family and Social Support Systems
- EDCP 789: Advanced Topics in Counseling and Personnel Services: Immigrant Child Counseling and Consultation
Contact
Contact
