College of Education Student Council

Hello Class of 2014 & Class of 2015!

First off, I would like to introduced The College of Education Student Council (COESC). COESC is part of Associated Students (AS). It is composed of students interested in being involved with the College of Education and the larger University community.

What does the COESC do?

•  Allows students who are part of the College of Education an opportunity to express concerns or questions relating to the college or the university. 
• COESC brings together student organizations representing diverse fields from the College of Education including, our very own student organization, SCGSA.

As the secretary of SCGSA, I attend the meetings. I would like to extend the invitation for others to attend the COESC meetings as well. We meet every other other week on Wednesday at 7:00pm. This is right after our 6:40pm Child Development class and most of us are already on campus. 

Every 2 weeks I will write a blog post on what we discussed at the COESC meetings for those who are unable to attend can stay informed. 

Minutes from COESC 

Wednesday February 5th, 2014 

I. COESC Secretary Position Open

•  COESC is looking for a committed student who is interested in a secretary position for COESC. Please email Jackie Felix, COESC President at coe.sdsu@gmail.com 

II. Student Success Fee- COESC Co-Hosting Information

• As some may be aware of it or not, SDSU are in the works of increasing tuition for fall 2014 up to 500.00. This will affect both undergraduate and graduate students which includes us.  COESC is working on co-hosting an info session to inform and educate the general student body. Date and time of the forum will be announced shortly, but it is important to be aware voice your concerns with the new possibly tuition hike.

III. College Counsel Games

• Ultimare Frisbee 
•  February 28th at 4pm in the music field 

IV. Student Organization Reports

• School Psychology Student Association (SPSA)
• Meeting times, first and third Monday of every month in NE 274 from 5:50pm-6:50pm

Spring 2014 Events (Survey)

Your lovely and multi-talented event coordinators, Elva, Beatriz, and Laura, have come up with a few different ideas for events this Spring.  As an organization, we strive to promote professional development, community service, and camaraderie.

Professional Development:

• Asking Dr. Monk (a well-known professor and author who teaches in the MFT program) to talk about counseling in schools - possibly addressing narrative counseling or solution-focused counseling as it applies to students.
• Dr. Monk can be difficult to book, so a second option is asking Carol for the Native American Scholars and Collaborators Grant to give a presentation on Mediated Learning.  This was apparently a very informative and engaging presentation that those on Native Grant think would very beneficial to everyone.

Community Service:

• Assisting a local school in Oceanside with their regularly scheduled food distribution to families in the community.  I'm not sure how much you all know about this but since the Oceanside community tends to be 100% socioeconomically disadvantaged, local schools serve as food banks for the families.

Camaraderie:

• Bowling
• Family picnic
• Bonfire
• Other suggestions, and locations TBD

We have taken your feedback about moving the events around the county in order to accommodate more people so if you have suggestions for places feel free to email SDSUSchoolCounselingGSA@gmail.com or comment on this post.

Our event coordinators can only manage one of each of these.  Once we have your feedback and dates are set we will let you know.  Thanks for your input!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Why a blog?

A message from the President of SCGSA:

One of the biggest things I've learned (and probably all of you as well) about being a good school counselor is that flexibility is imperative.  Things will come up; priorities will shift; plans will have to change.

I have held several positions in many different student organizations and came into my position with SCGSA with that experience at the forefront of my brain.  A graduate student association is a whole different beast, though, and that has been a learning process for me, as well as the other officers.  We spent last semester racking our brains to figure out how best to engage all of you in our organization so that it did not continue to be "an elite few governing the many".

One of my best experiences so far with SCGSA was at the end of last semester when my email flooded with opinions and ideas.  Some people were excited, others not so much, but regardless of what people were saying, the fact that so many of you took the time to send in your feedback meant that you care!  That felt good.

We (the officers) met last week and had a creative brainstorming session.  We considered the following points:

1. You all care about what SCGSA does.  You have opinions and want to be involved.
2. As graduate students, we do not like to be on campus if we don't have to be.  On a similar note, nobody likes meetings.
3. All of us have lives - families, husbands, quasi's, other programs and responsibilities and projects and jobs.
4. SCGSA, regardless of your desire to be involved, falls to the bottom of your priority list.

So then what do we do?  We considered a number of options and a blog was the one that won out.  Here is why and what we hope this will accomplish.

1. You're (hopefully) more likely to read it than some boring black and white meeting minutes.
2. There's no need to sit through any meetings; similarly, there are no meetings to try to schedule around everyone's busy lives.
3. You can read this whenever you have the time.
4. You can comment on the blog on your own time and the comments can create a sort of forum for discussion. (This is the big one.  Discussion is HUGE.)
5. If there is a topic that multiple people seem to want information about then we can post a blog and send it out (i.e. Where does our money go?).  You can ask those questions either in the threads or email SDSUSchoolCounselingGSA@gmail.com.

So what do you think?  If we post a blog after our officer meetings with any pertinent items that we would want to bring to a meeting, would you all read and comment and share your opinions?  Is this a good compromise?