MAC students make professors proud

Graduate counseling students represented the university and their profession well during a recent state-level meeting.

Thirteen students and three faculty members attended this year’s Ohio Counseling Association Legislative Advocacy Day. The mission of the day is to empower and teach all Ohio counselors how to become effective legislative advocates and to further advance relevant state and legislative matters of importance to counselors. All participants learned about legislative advocacy and jumped right in to meet with state legislators to begin the advocacy process.

The following people were in attendance: Olumide Olanrewaju, Kate Topp, Jeremy Stepp, Lesley Blum, Emily Shaw, Yuichi Sasakawa, Cassandra Bengela, Jamie Smith, Morgan Dunnam, Angela Howard, Jacqueline Andrzejewski, Justin Suddeth, Ronee Rice, Dr. Amber Baughman, Dr. Jo-Ann Lipford Sanders and Dr. Marjorie Shavers.

Jamie met with Rep. Edna Brown. Justin met with Sen. Tom Sawyer. Olumide and Marjorie met with an aide of Sen. Charleta Tavares. Kate, Jacqueline and Emily met with Sen. Cliff Hite. Emily also met with an aide for Rep. Robert Sprague. Amber met with Sen. Kris Jordan and Rep. Margaret Ann Ruhl, and Morgan, Yuichi, Cassandra and Ronee met with Rep. Dave Burke, who represents our Senate District 26.

Graduate counseling students spent this semester entering, coding and analyzing data for the Sandusky School District as part of its Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) initiatives. PBIS was established by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education programs as a way to develop behavioral supports and social culture necessary for all students to achieve social, emotional and academic success.

As a culmination of their project, students Jacqueline Andrzejewski, Cassandra Bengela, Elizabeth Morelli, Jamie Smith and Justin Suddeth gave a presentation to the district, including the superintendent, interim director of student services, several other administrators, counselors, school psychologists and principals. Marjorie and Jo-Ann accompanied the students.

Marjorie reports that it was great to see four 'Berg graduate counseling alumni as counselors and directors at the meeting. “Our counseling students did a great job and the MAC faculty are very proud of them,” she said.