2025 Learning Sessions


Session 1 - monday, february 3 - 11:00am

Is College the ONLY Ticket to a STEM Career?

We have been telling students that they need a college degree to be successful. While we push students into college at a 70% clip, the economy tells us that 70% of careers in demand today do not require a college degree. The skills gap in this country is real and you need to understand the Rule of 1-2-7. Skilled trades are in demand and provide students with a great career that pays well. Come join Dr. Coyle to learn what those careers are and how you can reach more of your students. Learn what Gen Z students are looking for in a career. Discover ways to get more parent involvement. Learn how you can get industry more involved in your school. See what UTI is doing to get girls involved in STEM Careers. Finally, learn how students can make school more affordable to avoid debt after graduation.

DR. STEVEN COYLE
Universal Technical Institute


Charting Pathways for All Students: Future Planning and Goal Setting for Marginalized Communities

This presentation is geared toward both middle and secondary counselors and will explore the vital role of school counselors in empowering students from marginalized communities to chart their own courses, despite systemic challenges. Attendees will learn practical strategies for guiding students in future planning and goal setting while addressing the unique needs of marginalized populations. Special emphasis will be placed on the significance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in these efforts. It is essential for counselors to approach goal-setting conversations with an understanding of cultural backgrounds, systemic inequities, and how to anchor students' success within their own lived experiences.

TORRE VALENTINE
Chandler Unified School District


Classroom Management? Just Say No!

A common concern of today's counselor is how much time and attention is dedicated to discipline. Many have been told all that is needed to improve the quality of their building or district is better classroom management. What can be done to increase student/parent engagement? What role can counselors play in reducing the defiance and suspensions that plague many campuses today?

SEAN BUCHANAN


Weaving Social and Emotional Learning into the Daily Fabric of School Counseling

Discover 5 practical strategies to weave social-emotional learning into daily activities. Practice relational techniques for classrooms, small groups, and staff meetings to enhance engagement, classroom management, student connection, and mental wellness aligned with ASCA standards.

KATHERINE PASTOR
Character Strong


Session 2 - monday, february 3 - 1:20pm

Enhancing Young Minds for College and Career Readiness: Using Fun and Innovative Ways to Reach Elementary Students

Do you dare take this Cruise with me, getting ready with your life jacket on, we may encounter some bumpy waters. College/ Career Readiness/Diversity, equity, and inclusion/Suicide and mental health/Resilience Strategies for working with interns/practicum students/Data-informed practices/School counselor relationship with various stakeholders. Enhancing Young Minds for College and Career Readiness: Using Fun and Innovative ways to Reach Elementary age students with high school students. Utilizing technology, games, and interactive conversation to give perspective on what you want to do as a career, how you interact in a workplace, and allowing both personal and professional growth. 

JENNY DAVIS-TINDALL
Central Arizona Valley Institute of Technology


Connecting the Dots

In this session, counselors will learn how to "Connect the Dots" using data-driven practices to support student growth and achievement. By incorporating academic data into their practices, counselors can enhance collaboration with teachers, administrators, and district officials to ensure alignment with school and district initiatives. The session will explore how to leverage Tier 2 Interventions effectively, allowing counselors to create targeted strategies that address academic needs and contribute to a culture of success across the campus. Attendees will gain insights into using data for advocacy, driving student-centered interventions, and identifying key areas of improvement.

HEATHER MESSINGER
Horizon High School

MARIAH REED-BROWN
Paradise Valley High School


Don't Forget... to Remember

As a counselor, one may struggle with feelings of inadequacy or be frustrated by situations that they find within their workplace. The repercussions of these and other challenges are being felt throughout the profession. Several states have high burnout rates and in certain locales educators are even holding "walk out" type protests. What can a counselor do with what they currently have to allow them to overcome such issues?

SEAN BUCHANAN


Ship Happens-Mustering Students' Stories to Write Compelling Application Essays

In an ocean of students with 4.0s and well above the tide test scores, how do you help your student float to the top? Through the R.I.S.E. brainstorm, you will make essay writing less intimidating by simplifying the process. Then, apply the brainstorm to the formulas to help your students create compelling application essays!

CHRIS HSIEH
Catalina Foothills High School


Session 3 - monday, february 3 - 2:40pm

Empowering Hearts and Minds: Building Resilient School Communities through Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion

In this session, participants will discover how the RAI (Respect, Affirmation, Inclusion) Framework can transform social-emotional development in schools by fostering resilience, empathy, and positive connection. By integrating RAI principles with evidence-based strategies, counselors and administrators will gain practical tools to help students feel safe, valued, and empowered within their school communities. Through hands-on activities and real-world examples, participants will explore how to build inclusive environments that nurture students’ emotional intelligence and promote a culture of respect and belonging. Leave with actionable insights to create a school community where every student thrives.  "Every student and educator deserve to be respected, affirmed, included."

JIMMY HART
Hart Global Industries

CHANDRA THOMAS
Hart Global Industries


Emotional Rollercoaster-Riding the Inside Out Express for K-12 SEL

Hold on to your marbles, because emotions with new ones are about to get real! Join us on a rollercoaster ride through the emotional world of Inside Out, where Joy, Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, Ennui Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust are more than just cartoon characters—they’re the stars of every student’s day! In this fun-filled session, you’ll learn how to turn those emotional highs and lows into teachable moments. We’ll share movie-inspired lesson plans and activities to help students from kindergarten to high school navigate their feelings without losing their cool (or their imaginary friends). Whether it’s taming Anger’s fire or getting Joy to the control panel in a rough moment, we’ll show you how to help your students stay in the driver’s seat of their emotional journey.
And don’t worry, we’ve got all the materials you need to make this as fun for you as it is for your students. Get ready to boost emotional intelligence and make SEL lessons a hit!

MINE CALIK
Irving Elementary

KRISTEN BURNETT
Stapley Jr High


Motivational Interviewing with Adolescents

Professionals across the social services spectrum (addiction treatment, medical care, mental health counseling, etc.) use Motivational Interviewing (MI) with great success. MI is particularly effective with adolescents, likely due to its foundation in the adolescent clients’ own desires for their lives. Presenters will train attendees in empathy-building techniques and skills to evoke adolescent clients’ reasons for change. Additionally, presenters will introduce more advanced MI techniques intended to help clients build a positive vision for their life trajectory. Presenters will utilize a multimedia presentation as well as active attendee participation and practice.

REAGAN NORTH
Liberty University

ROBERT PINCUS
Liberty University


Session 4 - monday, february 3 - 3:40pm

Prioritizing Student Basic Needs in Arizona Education Pathways

In this session, the critical intersection of basic needs and academic success will be explored, both in the K-12 environment and in higher education. School counselors, educators and college access professionals play a pivotal role in identifying and understanding the fundamental challenges students face, such as food insecurity, housing instability and lack of access to mental health services. Explore how these basic needs impact students’ academic performance and overall well-being. Attendees will gain insights into identifying and assessing basic needs challenges as well as learning practical strategies and key resources to effectively support students.

JENNIFER MURPHY
Education Forward Arizona

ROXANNE MURPHY
Arizona Board of Regents


Struggling to Reach Your Port of Call with Classroom Lessons?

Elementary school counselors know the value of tier one services including providing lessons to classes of students. While not all techniques are guaranteed to work every time, having a variety of methods to pull from can increase your chances of reaching all students. We will be sharing and explaining practical, relevant ways to convey information to students in a fun yet routine way. Our presentation will encompass ideas collected over the years and used in different settings. Topics will include:  routines for lessons, beginnings and endings, ways to teach any content using different activities, using puppets, why names are important and how to make students feel special, using literature to expose students to situations that involve social emotional subject matter, and some tips for working with classroom teachers to reinforce the lesson content with students every day.

SUSAN MARTIN
Oro Grande Classical Academy

SARAH SKEMP
Thatcher Unified School District


Are You Helping or Hurting?

We joined a helping profession because our care and compassion for others. It's just not in us to do anything that would hurt another, especially our students. With growing demands on the job, the emotional stress we deal with everyday sometimes pulls us down a path we didn't choose.  Out of exhaustion and frustration we sometimes make choices that do hurt others.  It's time to slow down.
Self-regulation is the foundation of helpful practices.  Different from self-control, regulation teaches us to be more mindful of our emotional state and process and let go of the emotion, instead of trapping it or stuffing it where it can cause further damage.  Self -regulation opens your empathetic heart, leads to more understanding, and shows us the path to truly help others.  In this workshop, you'll learn and practice a three step process for self-regulation that is both easy to use and easy to teach.

MARSI MCBRIDE
Liberty Elementary School District


Unlocking the Power of CCRI Data to Boost Post-Secondary and Early College Opportunities

Explore strategies for leveraging CCRI data to drive meaningful improvements and expand post-secondary and early college opportunities at your school. This session will guide you through methods for analyzing historical data to inform decisions and enhance student pathways to higher education. Additionally, we will share how to effectively use ASCA (American School Counselor Association) templates to streamline this process, ensuring that your initiatives align with best counseling practices. Join us to learn how to unlock valuable insights from CCRI data and utilize ASCA resources to support your students' educational journeys.

MELINDA VILLALOVOS
Paradise Valley Unified School District

JACKIE CLAYTON
Paradise Valley Unified School District


Session 5 - Tuesday, february 4 - 9:30AM

Enacting the ASCA Model in School Gardens

Previous research has established many benefits of garden-based learning including increased academic performance and student engagement, reduction in stress and anxiety, restorative impacts on attention and cognition, as well as supporting student well-being and social emotional development. With school gardens having a highly positive impact on all types of learning and social and emotional well-being, we offer here a garden-based school counseling approach that was built and refined over 15 years in one Title I school in Tucson, Arizona by a school counselor. In the proposed session we build on garden-based teaching and provide examples of how school gardens can become a place for school counselors to engage students in ways that reflect the expectations of the ASCA model. We conclude with an example activity demonstrating how school counselors interested in incorporating gardens into their counseling practices might successfully do so.

MOSES THOMPSON
University of Arizona

ELIZABETH POPE
University of Arizona


Empowering Parents to Support their Teen: A Counselor's Guide

In this session, we’ll explore why parents often feel left out of their teenagers’ lives and how we can change that narrative. As a parenting coach, I’ll share the top concerns that parents bring to me, and together, we'll discuss how counselors can empower parents to become stronger allies for their teens. We’ll dive into teen development and explore ways to teach parents to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting impulsively. We’ll talk about setting and maintaining strong rules and boundaries, effective communication techniques, and finding the right approach to support their teens’ growing independence—without fear. Let's work together to open up new paths for positive and impactful parental involvement!

Counselors will also have the opportunity to share their email addresses to receive materials that they can distribute directly to parents, as well as other parent workshop ideas.

BILLI GLENN
Coaching with Billi Glenn


NCAA Eligibility Center Updates

This informative session will provide everyone with an overview of the various resources provided by the NCAA Eligibility Center. The presentation will include highlighting the most useful resources for high school counselors including a course that has recently been released. The NCAA Eligibility Worksheet will be highlighted as a way to keep student-athletes on track for initial-eligibility requirements. Finally, we will review differences between the three NCAA divisions and data on the probability of going into professional sports.

BRIAN HUTCHINS
Mesquite High School


Student & Family Led Assessment Strategies for Tier III Learners

From 2020-2023, through an Attorney General’s Justice Innovation Grant, case management was undertaken for 20 justice engaged youth to support re-entry and success in both community and school. With only 20% of adjudicated youth earning a diploma nationally, the support team (researcher, former principal, special education director) supported students, school personnel and families in understanding more about their educational experience. Students created educational journey maps to describe their trajectory, including elements such as opportunities or exclusion from best first instructional practices, access to support and cultural relevance. Join us to learn how educational journey mapping can inform your work with Tier III learners.

DONNA TRUJILLO
Generation Schools Network

OLIVIA BACHICHA
Generation Schools Network


Sponsored Session


Session 6 - Tuesday, february 4 - 10:30AM

Their Future, Their Way: Guiding Students to Non-Traditional Pathways for College and Career

College can lead to a great career, but today’s students also have a wide variety of options in the postsecondary market. They no longer must choose between college or a career after high school. They can start their career through a paid apprenticeship and still go to college. They don’t have to choose between college or trade school; they can do both, even at the same campus. As Arizona works to improve the education attainment of its diverse population, schools must get creative in options they offer and arm students with information to make the best decisions for their future. The East Valley Institute of Technology now not only offers certificate programs, but also associate degrees, paid apprenticeships, a STEM academy leading to immediate employment without college, and housing and support services for foster care students. Session participants will learn how EVIT is helping students design their own non-traditional pathway to their future, their way.

CHAD WILSON
East Valley Institute of Technology

RONDA DOOLEN
East Valley Institute of Technology


The Social Media Impact

This session will take an inside look at different social media and messaging apps that are available and that many students have. We will also look at the positive and negative impacts, both socially and psychologically. The session will go over important conversations that can be difficult to have surrounding social media and how to help students understand the importance of being aware of what is posted online.

KATIE HEITLAND
Mesa Public Schools

LYDIA CARRILLO
Mesa Public Schools


Expanding College Access with Common App

Common App is a nonprofit member organization accepted by over 1,000 public and private colleges worldwide. We’re committed to helping all students - especially low-income and first-generation students - access, afford, and attain higher education. Join us to discuss the evolving college admissions landscape and how Common App is connecting Arizona students with direct admissions, scholarships, mentoring, and other college opportunities. Come learn how to access state and national data insights and connect with free counselor resources to help you advise and celebrate students on their postsecondary journey. Come with your questions and ideas!

MEREDITH LOMBARDI
Common App


Session 7 - Tuesday, february 4 - 1PM

A Suicide Prevention Framework for 5-12 Grades

Join us for an informative presentation on a comprehensive framework designed to foster mental wellness and prevent suicide among students in grades 5-12. This collaborative effort between the Vail School District and Text, Talk, Act has been in place for over eight years. The framework equips educators, parents, and students with the knowledge and tools to identify warning signs, initiate open conversations, and take proactive steps toward creating a safe and supportive learning environment.

Key Takeaways:

Understanding Suicide Prevention: Gain insights into factors contributing to suicide among adolescents and learn effective strategies for early intervention.
Lessons for the Classroom: Explore free engaging and age-appropriate lessons that promote emotional intelligence, healthy coping mechanisms, and a sense of belonging.
Training for Educators/Parents: Learn how to identify and support students at risk, facilitate open discussions, and create a culture of mental wellness.

AMANDA COOK
Vail School District

RAQUEL GOODRICH
Text, Talk, Act


Navigating the Digital Seas: Essential Technology Tools for School Counselors

Seas the day! Join this digital cruise as we embark on a journey to explore data and technology tools to enhance your school counseling program. Learn how to use engaging and effective data and technology tools to support your students' academic, career, and social/emotional development. School counselors will gain an understanding of how to select, evaluate, and integrate these tools into counseling practice. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are embedded throughout the course to promote creative ways to increase efficiency. An emphasis is given to Microsoft Copilot, but other AI tools are also utilized. Adventures on the digital seas are calling!

OSCAR GIRONI
Tolleson Union High School District


Counselor's Guide to Effectively Use Classroom Lessons to Build Your School Counseling Program

Are you a school mental health professional that feels like you are constantly putting out student behavior fires? Are you reteaching the same concepts quickly? Do you need some insight on how to provide strong Tier 1 classroom lessons, with efficacy? Well this is the breakout session for you. Those questions are just a few of the many questions that will be addressed in this breakout session. During this breakout session, I will provide tips, pocket practices, and tools I have found to be effective when teaching social emotional skills and concepts in the classroom. I will also have samples of success and how to implement different school initiatives to align with a cohesive school counseling program.  

I am proposing a breakout session that provides mental health professionals inspiration and a guide on how to effectively use Tier 1 classroom lessons to alleviate some Tier 2 & 3 interventions. This workshop will focus on how to seamlessly connect Tier 1 and Tier 2 /3 in your program

LAWRENA MEACH
Pima Butte Elementary


Unlocking College Pathways for CTE Students: Exploring Opportunities Beyond High School

Contrary to popular belief, most Career and Technical Education (CTE) students are college bound. This session explores the wide range of opportunities for CTE students with industry certifications to continue their academic journey. 

ROBERT VERNIER 
West-MEC Northwest Campus

Contact Us

conference@azsca.org
P.O. Box 30776
Mesa, AZ 85275-0776

Connect With Us

2024 AzSCA, Inc.
Counselor Cruise Banner