KCS Welcomes WVU Students for Internship

KCS Welcomes WVU Graduate Students to Kanawha County for Counselor-In-Residence Internships
Posted on 12/08/2021

For the second consecutive year, Kanawha County Schools (KCS) is partnering with the School Counseling Department at West Virginia University to host five "school counselors-in-residence” (SCIR) while completing a 6-month internship in several area schools. The graduate student interns will spend December 2021 through May 2022 living in the Charleston area, and working under the supervision of a KCS school counselor. Each SCIR intern will spend four days a week in an elementary setting, and one day a week in the local high school. The innovative partnership aims to assist KCS by providing additional social/emotional and mental health supports to five local elementary and high schools, while providing the university’s school counseling students an immersion experience in West Virginia’s largest school district.

 

“West Virginia University is excited and honored to work with Kanawha County schools to address the shortage of school counselors and mental health support for students,” said Chris Schimmel, Associate Professor/Associate Department Chair at West Virginia University. “The WVU/Kanawha County Schools partnership demonstrates Kanawha County's commitment to support students' mental health needs and supports WVU's land grant mission to serve the state of West Virginia. WVU looks forward to continuing this program well into the future.”

 

"We are thrilled to host these promising young professionals here in our district and intend to provide an enriching internship experience that will allow each to grow in their school counseling skills and competence,” said Jon Duffy, Kanawha County Schools Director of Counseling & Testing. “Given the educator shortage affecting Kanawha County and West Virginia, it is the hope of KCS for these students to find Kanawha County such a great place to live, work & play that they decide to stay!”

 

West Virginia University professors working with the partnership, Dr. Boulden and Dr. Schimmel, have further described the partnership in an article submitted to the journal of the National Rural Education Association, available at https://journals.library.msstate.edu/index.php/ruraled/article/view/1237/953.

ALampinen

Allison Lampinen

Hometown: Buckhannon, WV

School Counselor in Residence at Weimer Elementary and St. Albans High School

EBerry

Easton Berry

Hometown: Ripley, WV

School Counselor in Residence at Flinn Elementary and Sissonville High School 

HGarren

Helena Garren

Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA

School Counselor in Residence at Kenna Elementary and George Washington High School

TScott

Taylor Scott

Hometown: Hinton, WV

School Counselor in Residence at Cross Lanes Elementary and Nitro High School

ZSampson

Zoe Sampson

Hometown: Lewisburg, WV 

School Counselor in Residence at Bridge/Clendenin Elementary and Herbert Hoover High School

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