Counselor Education Portfolio

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling programs use a portfolio to engage students in a process of collecting, reflecting upon, and refining a compilation of materials and personal statements that synthesize the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that help to comprise their professional identities. As part of the requirements for the MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling degrees, you are required to develop and maintain a portfolio that documents your professional preparation throughout your training program.  

 

This portfolio is to be developed throughout your full two-year program.   It is designed to be an on-going cumulative process, one in which you will be required to formally submit your completed portfolio one month before your graduation, along with the Capstone Project: The Case Presentation, housed within section IX.  

 

 

Portfolio Check-point Deadlines
Apart from the Portfolio and Capstone Seminars, there will be four check-points that you must keep in mind.  These deadlines will be important to meet in order to receive the feedback and make the purposeful progress needed to contribute to a successful final product.  At each check-point time, you are to submit your portfolio as an assignment to GDPC695 Professional Portfolio on Livetext.  This class can be found on your Livetext Dashboard. 

The first check-point will occur by the end of your first semester and must be completed before you will be allowed to begin your GDPC650 Practicum class.  By this time, you should have:
• set up the pre-existing template for the nine sections of your professional portfolio (section I);
• you should have included your letter of acceptance into the program (section I);
• you should have completed your biographical sketch, including a contribution of some sort on your personal interests (section I);
• you should have completed writing the first of at least three entries of your evolving personal philosophy applied to your specialty (section II);
• you should include the documents necessary to demonstrate that you obtained your back-ground check through COEUS and signed the Conviction Clearance document necessary to continue onto Practicum (section IV);
• you should upload a copy of your proof of Professional Liability Insurance which is free through ACA’s student membership.  Once you have logged in to the ACA website there will be a proof of liability tab where you can print off a copy of your coverage;
• you should have evidence of professional membership (section V);
• you should have updated any other activities in section V, VII and VIII that you have engaged in; and
• you should have updated sections VI based on the courses you took your first semester;
• you should have already attended your first Portfolio & Capstone Seminar.

The second check-point will occur at the end of your first two semesters and before you are allowed to begin your internship experience.  The review will be completed by Dr. Hinman so please alert him when you are ready to have your portfolio reviewed, and have submitted it to GDPC695 on Livetext.  By this time you should have:

• updated your evolving personal philosophy (section II);
• updated your course work information (section III);
• completed and attached the needed documents and information of your Practicum experience (section IV);
• completed the assignment in section IV where you discuss what you would like to accomplish in your upcoming internship experience, as well as discuss the populations you prefer to work with, and why, and those you do not prefer to work with, and why;
• you should include the document demonstrating that you signed your 2nd Conviction Clearance form needed in order to continue onto Internship (section IV);
• updated what you can in sections V, VI, VII and VIII;
• you should have attended your second Portfolio and Capstone Seminar;
• you should have begun working on Section IX, the Capstone Project: The Case Presentation.

The third check-point will occur at the end of your internship experience and will be conducted by Dr. Waite.  Please alert him when you are ready to have your portfolio reviewed at this time.  By this time you should have:
• Updated your evolving personal philosophy (section II);
• Updated your course work information (section III);
• Complete and attached needed documents and information collected thus far of your Internship experience (section IV);
• Updated what you can in sections V, VI, VII and VIII;
• Nearly completed Section IX, the Capstone Project: The Case Presentation.

 

The last check-point will occur at the completion of your program, at least two months before your scheduled graduation.   By this time you should have:
• Updated your evolving personal philosophy (section II);
• Updated your course work information (section III);
• Complete and attached needed documents and information collected thus far of your Internship experience (section IV);
• Updated what you can in sections V, VI, VII and VIII;
• Completed Section IX, the Capstone Project: The Case Presentation

All sections must be completed by this time.  The “green-light” for graduation, with respect to your professional portfolio, will be given once the counselor education core faculty members have reviewed your completed portfolio and once you have received a Proficient to Exceptional rating on sections I-VIII and you have at least a Proficient rating on your Capstone Project: The Case Presentation assignment.  Notifying us of your completed portfolio two months before your graduation is necessary to give the faculty the time needed to review your final product and schedule for your presentation of The Capstone Project: The Case Presentation assignment.  If any section is left wanting, you might need to wait until the following semester to resubmit your corrected/updated portfolio.  Please note:  this could delay your time of graduation if you are not careful.

Each student must register for GDPC695 Professional Portfolio in their last semester.  This 0-credit, 0-cost class will be used to document your satisfactory completion of the portfolio and clear you for graduation.   At this time you will be asked to sign up for a 30 minute slot where you will present your portfolio to the core counselor education faculty.  Your presentation should be from 20-25 minutes in length.