Highlights of a Practical Leader: Share your Gifts, Time and Talents

In this article on practical leadership, I share a bit about school counselor extraordinaire Florentina Crawford, an NJSCA leader and one of administrators for the NJ School and SAC Counselors Online Collaborative Facebook page. She recently demonstrated how one can be a practical leader in our field and did this through a simple, fun post. She posted: “Let’s play a game! Drop an emoji in the comments that represents how you feel about this year!” It was so impressive because she invited counselors to share feelings in a safe and welcoming way. She shared first, and offered support for all who replied. I believe this also supported all who read the post. The emoji shared included a lion, a superhero, a Ferris wheel, an array of faces feeling happiness, sadness, nervousness, silliness, playfulness, worry and excitement. And finally a lemon – with this emoji she commented “make the lemonade.”
 
As a leader, Crawford is inviting, inclusive and supportive. She is a practical leader – she knows what needs to be done, gathers folks to participate and gets the job done. She leads the way as a member of one of our most important committees. With BIPOC committee Chair Laura Williams and others, she developed an outstanding position statement on Culturally Sustaining School Counseling. If you are interested in becoming a member of NJSCA’s BIPOC committee, email Laura Williams! They have expanded the DEI work of your school counseling organization and you can read the statement right here.
 

New Jersey School Counselor Association Position Statement
on Culturally Sustaining School Counseling

NJSCA counselors believe that all students can be successful with the appropriate school counseling support. New Jersey school counselors advocate to create welcoming and safe environments for students of color to learn and thrive. We work with all educators to end racism, microaggressions, bias, and create systemic change. (Diversity & Education, 2020).

As such, New Jersey School Counselor Association counselors are committed to:

• Learning the skills necessary to provide a culturally sustaining safe space to support students through ongoing professional development.
• Servicing students with cultural humility by honoring, acknowledging, and valuing the cultural identity of students. (Owen et al., 2016; Hammond, 2015)
• Servicing students from an antiracist lens.
• Encouraging awareness of racism with their students and disrupting all types of racism in their schools (French et al., 2019).
• Collaborating with all other stakeholders to provide culturally appropriate interventions and plans that ensure respect.
• Using data and needs assessments to inform efforts to eliminate the achievement gap by providing all students of color with equitable access to scholarships, post high school planning, and resources (Burkard et al., 2009).
• Providing equitable access to school counseling services that include mental wellness, social and emotional learning, academic advising, and college and career readiness (Gordillo, 2015; Burkard et al., 2009).
• Maintaining ongoing relationships with and awareness of community resources that support the unique needs of marginalized communities.
• Advocating for and developing appropriate antiracist interventions and positive behavior supports (Sink, 2016) that decrease the disproportionate rates at which students of color are disciplined and suspended.
• Creating a school culture that is preventative of implicit bias and discrimination while simultaneously giving students a voice and a sense of belonging. (Sink, 2016).

Thank you, Florentina Crawford, for being a practical leader for NJSCA and the NJ School and SAC Counselors Online Collaborative. Thank you to Laura Williams, chair of the BIPOC committee, and the entire committee for the awesome work on the position statement.

It is my hope that this article inspires other school counselors to step forward and remember that for all the practical activities and responsibilities we have day to day in our schools, leadership in our state organization is one of the most important for each of us to step up and share. Consider sharing your gifts, time and talents to move our field forward. Please join us at our next executive board meeting; dates of executive board meetings are 9/15, 12/15, 2/9, 3/9 and 6/1. The meetings start at 5 pm and end at 7 pm. Please reach out to me at cindypovall@gmail.com if you want to stretch your leadership skills and share your gifts for the benefit of all school counselors, students, families and communities in our state. Any active NJSCA member can come to the meeting and enjoy dinner and the camaraderie and planning with the state organization that represents school counselors!