The Louisiana Career Development Association (LCDA) held its spring conference on Saturday, April, 28, 2007 at Southeastern Louisiana University. The theme of the conference was “In our Profession, We Are All Career Counselors” and was attended by about 35 counselors. The attendees represented college counselors, high school, middle and elementary school counselors, and private practice counselors. Michele Faith, President of LCDA, welcomed the attendees and gave the agenda for the day.
The keynote speaker for the conference was Dr. June Williams, Ph.D., LPC from Southeastern Louisiana University who is very well known by all LCA and LCDA members. Dr. Williams spoke on the theme of the conference “We Are All Career Counselors” and how career counseling is interwoven into most formal disciplines of counseling. She challenged the career counselors in all settings to find ways to educate other counselors and the general public on what career counseling is and how it can be beneficial to all our clients. It was a very inspirational message and LCDA appreciates Dr. Williams attending and speaking to our conference attendees.
The sessions were as follows:
Session 1: “Card Sorts for Career Assessments” presented by Dr. Bill Phillips, Success Labs, Inc., and Sharon Walker, LPC, NCC of Our Lady of the Lake College and Success Labs, Inc. They told the audience about the advantages of using card sorts in a career counseling setting and demonstrated the use by involving the attendees in an actual group card sort exercise using an interest inventory and Holland’s RIASEC system.
Session 2: “Career Counseling Across the Generations” was presented by Ellen Bush, LPC, Krystal Hardison, LPC, Lorett Swank, LPC and Sharon Fife, LPC all of Southeastern Louisiana University. This was a very comprehensive look at generational counseling detailing the differences among the baby boomer generation, the Gen X and Y population and the Z generation or the millennials.
Session 3: “Career Development: A Tool for Student Retention in Louisiana Schools” was presented by Ron Cathey, LPC, LMFT from Louisiana Tech University. Ron explained a new initiative that will be proposed to LCA in which career counselors can assist school counselors with tools and techniques to promote career decision making and, thereby, increasing student retention in our schools. The audience formed two groups – one to assess individual activities school counselors and teachers can use and one group to establish a time line for implementing this initiative.
Session 4: “Career Sculpting with Career Assessments” presented by Mary Feduccia, Ph.D., LPC, LMFT and Joan Gallagher, LPC, NCC from Louisiana State University and Wendy Rock_ from Hahnville High School. They discussed the many different career “sculpting” tools that can be used in the career decision making process – both formal and informal - computer based assessments and inventories, pen and paper assessments, individual career counselor interaction. These tools included some very creative methods of assessments and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
The Spring LCDA Conference was a huge success. LCDA wants to thank Michele Faith for organizing this conference and Ellen Bush for coordinating at Southeastern.
If any LCDA members have suggestions for topics they would like to see addressed at future LCDA conferences, please e-mail Michele Faith at
mfaith@bpcc.edu
