Open AccessMore Than Just an Internship: One University’s Collaboration with a Rural School District to Attract, Develop, and Retain School Counselors
Author(s) -
Rawn Boulden,
Christine J. Schimmel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the rural educator/the rural educator
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2643-9662
pISSN - 0273-446X
DOI - 10.35608/ruraled.v42i3.1237
Subject(s) - school district , internship , graduation (instrument) , general partnership , west virginia , situated , appalachia , medical education , pedagogy , sociology , psychology , medicine , political science , geography , engineering , mechanical engineering , paleontology , archaeology , artificial intelligence , law , computer science , biology
This promising practice describes an innovative collaboration between West Virginia University, a land grant institution situated in the middle of rural Appalachia, and Kanawha County Schools, located in Charleston, WV. The partnership aimed to assist the rural school district by supporting children in three elementary schools and by providing the university’s school counseling students an immersion experience in rural schools, with the hope of retaining them in the school district following graduation. The collaboration fulfilled the original mission of the program in two ways; first, the school district retained one-third of the school counseling students who participated. Secondly, the collaboration was met with overwhelming support by district leadership, resulting in an increase in school counseling students entering the program in the next academic year.