On Monday, July 28, 2014 the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in partnership with the White House’s College Opportunity Agenda, convened leaders in education to discuss strategies to increase access to college for Americans. SDSU Counseling and School Psychology faculty members, Dr. Trish Hatch and Dr. Laura Owen were among the leaders and decision makers who attended the event to discuss how improvements in school counseling and college advising can bring about greater postsecondary opportunities for Americans.
Earlier in the month, at the American School Counselor Association Annual Conference (ASCA), First Lady Michelle Obama told the audience, “School counseling should not be an extra or a luxury just for school systems that can afford it. School counseling is a necessity to ensure that all our young people get the education they need to succeed in today’s economy.”
Dr. Owen participated in a panel titled, “Innovative Programming and Research” where she discussed areas of college-readiness for high school students. These areas included college affordability planning, college and career admission processes and the high school to college transition process. Listen to Dr. Owen’s panel discussion on YouTube.
Dr. Hatch was a featured speaker over the lunch session and inspired the crowd by sharing the exciting commitments that SDSU has made to increase student college-readiness. These commitments, supported by SDSU University President Hirshman and College of Education Dean Johnson, include offering the SDSU campus as a location for a West coast convening of President Obama’s College Opportunity program and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher program and developing a new doctoral program with a specialization in School Counseling. Listen to more of Dr. Hatch’s inspiring talk on YouTube.
Read more about the White House event.