School Counseling Mission Statement

The mission of the Master of Education in School Counseling program is to equip school counselors to implement data-driven comprehensive school counseling services informed by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model to support growth in academic achievement, career and social-emotional development. Grand Canyon University’s school counseling program integrates faith and learning while fostering the development of school counselors as change agents advocating for models of school-based collaboration with school stakeholders. Future school counselors can gain the knowledge and skills to promote equity and access for P-12 students to become contributing global citizens.

GCU’s School Counseling Program Objectives

Program Objective One: The counseling programs provide learning opportunities for counselors-in-training to develop and apply the knowledge, skills and dispositional values to become competent, ethical and culturally responsive global contributors.

School Counselors-in-Training Learning Outcomes

• Counselor Identity and Ethics: Develop best practices and counselor identity as informed by ethical and professional standards and programmatic dispositional values.
• Diversity and Advocacy: Gain opportunities to practice ethically as advocates for social justice through exposure to multicultural counseling theories and experiential exercises that promote awareness of cultural bias and diverse worldviews.
• Human Growth and Development: Acquire knowledge and skills to meet the diverse needs of individuals in the context of human growth and development.
• Counseling and Helping Relationships: Cultivate counseling and helping skills by integrating counseling theories and research, engaging in community collaboration and outreach, and developing skills to apply in professional and therapeutic relationships.
• Group Counseling and Group Work: Integrate theoretical foundations and consider dynamics and therapeutic factors to gain knowledge of theories, develop techniques, promote leadership skills, and facilitate the therapeutic group process for diverse clients.

Program Objective Two: The programs will recruit, enroll and retain qualified applicants that reflect the demographic diversity of the multicultural and pluralistic societies in which they will serve.

Program Objective Three: Graduates of the program will complete curricular requisites in preparation to obtain licensure and secure employment in their respective specialty areas.