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November 2019 Florida Career Development Association Newsletter
What to look for in this month's newsletter:
  • Career Counseling Featured Article:
    • FCA Convention Reflection | Written by FCDA Graduate Student Representative, Alexandria Stewart
  • Check it out! Online Tool of the Month: Technology Twins
  • Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities
This Month's Featured Article:
Graduate Student Perspective: 
Applying Lessons from the
Florida Counseling Association Convention 2019

Written by: Alex M. Stewart, Career Consultant at the Florida Atlantic University Career Center and Graduate Student Representative for the Florida Career Development Association

On October 4th and 5th, counselors from across the state of Florida gathered to attend the Florida Counseling Association (FCA) 2019 Convention at the University of South Florida, Tampa campus. While the event appeared to be made up primarily of mental health counselors, school counselors and private practitioners, we were all united under the theme of “Self-Care”. Approaching this convention from the lens of someone who works in career counseling, I was often asked “What brings you here?” when other conference goers and I would get to know each other. The connection between the FCA Convention and my current position was not immediate or salient, so I had to work in each session to make those connections for myself. While a vast majority of the sessions did not have any direct correlation to my work or speak about career counseling specifically, I was able to take in the information presented and make meaning with it as it applied to my professional life.

In one of the later presentations at the convention, the University of Central Florida’s Marriage and Family Research Institute presented a session on Relationship Education. In this session, the speakers facilitated interactive role plays between participants that would allow them to explore techniques they used with clients. One of these approaches covered in this session is called the Speaker/Listener Technique. In this activity, couples are given space to speak, listen, and hopefully, better understand one another.

Not long after returning from the FCA Convention, I was charged with teaching a class of undergraduate first-year students about interviewing best practices. As I reviewed the lesson outline and started to craft an idea of what I wanted to accomplish during class. I realized very quickly that the approaches used in the FCA Relationship Education session could easily be translated into a class activity.

While teaching about different ways to approach interviewing, I split the class into pairs. One member of the pair has the metaphorical “floor” and is given an opportunity to speak their mind about something. While they speak, the listener listens without replying. Instead, the listener is tasked with occasionally paraphrasing the speaker’s dialogue until the speaker feels that the listener has understood what they are saying.

After the activity, I debriefed with the class and we spoke about how those interactions were transferable to interviewing. Some students spoke about the difficulty of not replying or initiating a conversation based on what the speaker said. Others stated that it could be difficult to paraphrase what the speaker had said correctly. I brought up the interviews I had sat in on where individuals were simply listening so that they could respond to the interviewer rather than listening to obtain information. In those situations, the person who truly listened to interviewer came across as more authentic and engaged than their peers. Overall, the students felt that this activity was a practice in Active Listening and that it would be helpful to approach their interviews in a similar way.

As a career counselor and not someone with a true counseling background, I was concerned that I wouldn’t walk away with valuable information the way that mental health or school counselors were able to. Although the FCA Convention wasn’t directly linked to my profession, there were connections I could make in every session I attended and lessons I will continue to put into practice as I continue teaching.

Check it out! 
Online tool of the month!
Technology.Twins
Career Development – Technology Tools – Teaching and Counseling
Deb S. Osborn, PhD and Melissa A. Venable, PhD

 
Our interests include career planning and development, teaching and counseling, and all kinds of technology. Join us here on the Technology Twins blog as we share our ideas, lessons learned, reviews, papers, presentations, and more.
Visit Technology Twins
Check out these upcoming Professional Development opportunities!

Wrote an article on career development?

Published a book?

Organized an engaging program or workshop?

Won an award?

Whatever it is, we want to celebrate you! If you have a recent accomplishment, tell us all about it! Submit your story by sending Emily Flositz, our Social Media & Communications Committee Chair, an email at FCDA2016@gmail.com with your name, job title and company/school, and brief summary of your accomplishment. Add any applicable media, like pictures or graphics, as an attachment.

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Interested in composing an article for the FCDA newsletter? Please email Emily Flositz at fcda2016@gmail.com with your information and topic idea!
To learn more about NCDA Credentials, visit https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/credentialing
November 2019 FCDA Newsletter
Florida Career Development Association

Email: FCDAmembership@gmail.com 

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Florida Career Development Assocation · P.O. Box 300457 · Fern Park, FL 32730 · USA

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