Reflection Paper On School Counseling

As I reflect on the decision I made to apply for my Master’s degree within the school counseling field, I began to become more grateful. School counseling wasn’t nearly the major I chose upon entering college for my undergraduate level. I wanted to be a pediatrician. As a senior in high school, I would ponder often about my potential career goals. I wanted to work with children, but I loved Science. My love for Science was undeniable. Majoring in Biological Sciences, and then entering medical school was my goal. A pediatrician seemed like the likely career path to choose, being that I loved children and science. However, my decision began to waver as I continued within my degree. I went from a Biology major to a Teaching of English major.

I researched several programs and schools. I was torn on so many levels. Many school counseling programs consisted of me taking the GRE exam. I did not want to take the GRE exam. I was hearing several negative things about the GRE, and I believed I wasn’t prepared. I began to connect with individuals who were in the counseling field already. I would interview them, and they would speak about their experience. Every school counselor I interviewed expressed their love for it. They even expressed how it was a fulfilling position that they didn’t desire to do anything else, and that it was a career that they could retire within. While speaking with the school counselors, I learned that many of them received their degrees at National Louis University. Each counselor loved the program. Shockingly, I had already been researching this school. I did more research, and participated in an informational session about the program. I was sold on it. I knew I needed to immediately enroll, and work towards gaining my school counseling degree. I knew that I needed to not procrastinate any further, because I had taken two to three years off from school. National Louis University’s is an accredited university that has a CACREP counseling field. I chose school counseling because I wanted to work within the educational field. I was currently employed working in several high schools in Chicago, and I wanted to continue my path in education. I figured clinical counseling would limit me only within the social emotional piece of counseling. However, National Louis University offered the school counseling field that would allow school counselor’s to sit for the National Counselor Exam that would allow me to become a licensed professional counselor as well. To me, choosing the school counseling field was receiving the best of both worlds. I knew that if I didn’t enjoy schools, I would be able to