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<br>Life skills for success are free for BSU students
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Sure you can get a formal education at BSU. But you can also get an education in something more important…and there’s no homework, no tests and no grades…just life itself.
Between the university’s Counseling and Testing Center and the Career Center you can get professional help in dealing with any of life’s challenges: relationships, academic performance, test anxiety, depression, job hunting, parenting, career development, self-esteem, chemical dependency, sexuality, health concerns…the list is open, and the help is free.
The Counseling and Testing Center and the Career Center are two of BSU’s oldest and most experienced student services. The Career Center has been introducing students and alumni to employment opportunities for almost 30 years. Its director, Dick Rapp, has been at the helm since 1970.
The Counseling and Testing Center also benefits from similar continuity and leadership under Jim Nicholson, who has run the counseling/testing program for 16 years. The two centers work together often, and this kind of continuity extends down through their staffs.
Continuity in counseling can be a real advantage, according to Nicholson. Students will come in as freshmen, then come in again some years later, nearer to graduation. Then they may revisit, perhaps as a parent returning to school. Each time they visit they can see the same counselor.
BSU’s Counseling and Testing Center is one of 150 comprehensive centers accredited by the International Association of Counseling Services. As such it provides individual counseling, crisis intervention, and outreach. The center handles between 80 and 100 “crisis” cases per year.
All you need to qualify for the Counseling Center’s services is to be taking one credit.
“People often underestimate their own abilities,” says Nicholson. “We help clients build on their strengths. We find how they have faced and solved problems in the past, just by getting to where they are today.”
The center prides itself on its range of services. For example, one client has five children and is in transition from divorce. Some of the staff are especially good with children, so they see the whole family. The staff will see couples, and children by themselves as well. The Center also works with a nurse practitioner at the BSU Health Center for cases involving medication.
The center prefers to work in preventative modes, which is what the outreach program is about. The outreach program includes one-credit courses in depression or phobias, and on relationships, and holds workshops on topics such as test anxiety, dating, stress management, and balance, or the problem of juggling many priorities.
“We are solution-focused,” Nicholson explains. “We help you resolve the situation and get you on your way. We’re not here to re-shape you through long-term therapy. We help you come up with a plan and give you the tools.”
Most clients find just one, hour-long session with a counselor is sufficient, but some have had up to 20 sessions. The average number of sessions per client is four.
To contact the Counseling and Testing Center, call 426-1601 or visit the web site at www.boisestate.counseling.edu. The Center is located on the sixth floor of the Education Building.
The statement, “We help you come up with a plan and give you the tools” could just as well apply to the Career Center.
On the “plan” side of their service the center can help you figure out what direction you want to take. Computerized assessment tests will evaluate your interests, and skills, as will career-choice workshops and job counseling.
The center also provides employment contacts. The Career Center lists more than 10,000 openings per year. You can easily check job openings on-line by registering with the center. There are 800 to 1,000 openings posted at any given time, and they can be searched by career field.
“Don’t overlook the Student Employment Office,” Rapp advises. “The part-time jobs here can be a great way into a company.”
In fact, the Career Center and the Student Employment Office will be housed together next semester in the former Alumni Association offices.
Among the center’s resources for planning is the Annual Employer Directory, which has grown from 300 employers to more than 1,100 today. Here you will find what the company does, what occupations they employ, whom to contact and an occupational cross-index. Director Rapp believes Boise State is the only college in the country that produces a guide of this type.
In addition, the center hosts on-campus interviews for 40 to 100 employers annually. About two-thirds of the on-campus interviewers and job listings are looking for the specialized areas of accounting, engineering, computer science and information systems. There are generally more openings than there are students to fill them in these areas, so companies are recruiting aggressively.
The other third of the employers are not as concerned about the major or study area…they just want graduates. These employers are mostly retail, but also health, teaching, sales and social service areas are looking at graduates.
On the “tools” side of the benefits, the center is committed to making the student an effective job hunter. This effort focuses on what it takes to present yourself as a problem-solver: resumes, interviewing, networking, and researching prospects are the skills you can learn.
“It’s actually the liberal arts major whom we can help the most,” says Rapp. “We show them how to see and to present themselves as offering a lot more than their major.” Rapp points out that getting a college degree takes a lot of management skills that are directly transferable to the business world.
He cautions, however, that the word “trainee” is seen much less often these days. Banks, for instance, just don’t have the resources to train; they need people who can hit the ground running. Internships are “the way of choice” that companies are bridging the gap between theory and skills, according to Rapp.
The center uses or is installing the latest technology. One non-local company did their interviews by videophone. The Employer Directory will be online eventually. The center plans to expand its current web site to list students’ resumes, which the student can determine who can access.
In the future Rapp hopes to expand their services to the Canyon County area. In the meantime, he says the best scenario for the center is a continued good job market. “That’ s the real key to the employability of students…there’s got to be the need.” With Boise’s continuing growth boom, that’s not likely to be a problem.
The Career Center can be reached at 426-1747 or online at www.boisestate.career.edu.
Mike Winter (The Arbiter)