School Counseling in Nebraska

Join Jake and Loni as they discuss their journey to school counseling, and why school counseling is a vital, important, and wonderful role within the school environment. This will be Loni and Jake's last episode running the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast, it has been our pleasure to help facilitate these conversations and professional development to our colleagues in the state and beyond. T...

For all that school counseling entails, one of the most challenging aspects can be supporting our buildings when grief visits our schools. Join Loni and Jake as they discuss grief, including strategies, resources, and the importance for making room for grief when it enters our buildings and communities.

On today's episode of School Counseling in Nebraska Jake is joined by Kalene Heaton. Kalene is a current high school counselor at Glenbrook South High School in Illinois. Illinois as a state implemented their own version of Universal FAFSA a number of years ago, and Kalene has both served on the government side of getting Universal FAFSA implemented as well as the school side being in the tren...

Join Loni and Jake as they discuss the second half of our NSCA Book Club read, The Anxious Generation. In this episode cell phone bans are discussed: is there a benefit to them? Are cell phones the cause of these behaviors in school or just correlated with some other issue. How do students seem to take to not having cell phones? Additionally, we discuss the impacts that zero tolerance policies can...

Welcome back to the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast. We are starting off season 3 with a bang, starting back up our NSCA Book Club with Jonathan Haidt's new novel "The Anxious Generation." Join Jake and Loni as they discuss the themes of the book, as well as addressing the great re-wiring of childhood that has left our schools and students processing how to best serve our commu...

Welcome to our 3rd edition of Unusual Professional Development! Loni and Jake share some recommendations for our listeners regarding some reads and listens that could benefit school counselors during the summer months. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we will see you in July with episodes over our upcoming book club: The Anxious Generation.

We see your questions on the email listerv, and are ready to talk class rank! Are you ready to pitch to your local school board, have you read the research behind reporting class rank? Listen as Loni tells the story of moving Chadron High School from a traditional class rank/valedictorian system to a cum laude system and the benefits. Why Stop Reporting Class Rank? 1. Reduction in kids avoiding ch...

Join Jake and Loni as they wrap up the first ever @NSCApod Book Club with the final chapters of Hope Rising. Listen as they go through 15 tips and tricks to incorporate hope and increase hope scores in students and colleagues for educators everywhere. Don't forget to join us Thursday, May 23rd  LIVE Zoom NSCA discussion happy hour! Time TBD

This week Jake welcomes guest Rachel Catlett - former NSCA School Counselor of the Year, current NSCA Governing Board President, and current Director of School Counseling at Doane University. Listen to Rachel and Jake talk about why school counselors should be using the ASCA Position Statements, where to find them, and how they are created.

Join in for the third episode of the mini-series @NSCApod Book Club studying the book Hope Rising  by Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman.  “ Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope changes lives. Hope Rising provides a roadmap to measure hope in your life, assess what may have robbed you of the power of hope, and then provides strategies to increase hope.“ To join the club grab your copy of Hope Ris...

The ACT has been the standard in the Midwest for many years as the nesessary admission assessment that students need to take to get into a 4-year college. Join Jake and Loni as they discuss the pros and cons of navigating the ACT as school counselors with students, families, and post-secondary institutions. The ACT: The quintessential love/hate relationship? Join us to dive in!

Let's talk about Breaking The Cycle of Reactive School Counseling Practices: Hatching Results. Mindi and Angie join us on School Counseling in Nebraska to prep for their Keynote presentation at the Nebraska School Counselors Elementary Conference coming up! The NSCA Elementary School Counselor Conference is just over a week away.  It will be held on Friday, March 22nd at the Lied Lodge and Con...

Hope Rising by Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman. “Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope changes lives. Hope Rising provides a roadmap to measure hope in your life, assess what may have robbed you of the power of hope, and then provides strategies to increase hope.“ To join the club grab your copy of Hope Rising and get ready for some great conversations led by  @NSCApod  School Counseling in Neb...

We have a special episode that our Nebraska School Counselor Association executive team wanted to jump on and speak directly to listeners. In this year’s Nebraska legislative session, a new bill, LB1322, has been introduced that directly speaks to our profession as school counselors. Executive Director of NSCA Doug Hauserman and Assistant Executive Director Katie Cameron will be discussing and goi...

The School Counseling in Nebraska Podcast is super excited to announce the BUILDING BETTER HUMANS BOOK CLUB! Our first book is announced in this podcast give it a listen and join us for our inaugural book club! We cannot wait to join with you in connection and develop personally and professionally along side the amazing School Counselors across the state of Nebraska and perhaps the country! Share...

Nic van Oss is the SEL Services Coordinator at the St. Croix River Education District in Minnesota. He is the lead author of the free Be Good People SEL curriculum, a project that started during the first week of COVID lockdown and is now used across the globe. Nic began his career as a paraprofessional in a residential behavior program and spent several years of his career as a School Psychologis...

Andrew Huzeker is the Outreach Service Coordinator for the EcucationQuest Foundation. Andrew has spent the last month helping students and guardians navigate the new 2024 FAFSA as well as helping provide quality access to college across the state of Nebraska. EducationQuest Foundation is a nonprofit with a mission to improve access to higher education in Nebraska. They provide  free  college plann...

The Nebraska School Counselor Association is accepting applications to join the board. This is a great opportunity for school counselors across the state to be a part of the organization.

Jake and Loni take on part 2 of Unusual Professional Development from season 1. As avid readers, listeners, watchers and consumers of books, podcasts, and all things media - Jake and Loni give their most recent enjoyable recommendations right in time for the holiday break. Snuggle in with a new book and get ready for BIG things including a read-along/book study coming from School Counseling in Neb...

One of the most important parts of our job as school counselors, this week we will be diving into documentation. Joining us this week we are thrilled to have Jessica Mukherjee. Jessica is a high school counselor in Omaha Public Schools, and has previously been a middle school counselor. Jessica has also served as a board member for the Nebraska School Counselor Association and has been vice-chair...

Geoff Heckman is a school counselor and counseling department chair at Platte County High School in Platte City, MO, an ASCA RAMP school, and an adjunct instructor for Missouri Baptist University.  He has been a school counselor for 20 years counseling at both the middle and high school levels.  He is a Past President for the Missouri School Counselor Association and was selected as Missouri's...

Jake welcomes all school counselors to the 2023 School Counselor Academy in Kearney Nebraska. We look forward to seeing you ther!

Studies have shown that hope is the number one predictor of future well-being. It is easily measured, defined, taught and practiced. Listen and learn how you can implement hopeful behaviors in your school setting to improve attendance, engagement, achievement and staff resilience. Over 2,000 research studies have shown that hope is the #1 predictor of future well-being outcomes. Simply stated high...

Jake and Loni discuss a common thread that has been occurring in their conversations with parents, students, and friends: Processing and how to react to student's disappointments. This episode addresses many common disappointments both students, parents, and families can go through in a school year and some "aha" moments Jake and Loni have learned from along the way.

Does your school have a specific policy for accepting homeschool credits? Are you seeing a rise in students doing partial days at the elementary and middle school level? Is the new NSAA policy and LB7051 helping or harming students in regards to the flexibility of homeschool vs. public school? Hear Jake and Loni talk about their experience with homeschooled students, advising students, and the ris...