Elon University School of Law hosted Bridging Troubled Waters: Counseling Fundamentals for Academic Support Professionals, June 21-22, sponsored by the Law School Admissions Council. It was the first counseling skills training course to be offered in the 17 years of annual meetings following the inaugural conference that marked the establishment of the academic support field within legal education nationally.
The counseling conference is one of four topical conferences sponsored by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) in even numbered years. In alternate years there is one national conference.
Participants in the conference at Elon Law engaged in learning and practicing skills workshops throughout the two-day program. Martha Peters, professor of legal education at Elon Law, said more than 50 participants from law schools across the country participated in the conference.
“The conference was designed for participants, primarily law trained academic support professors, to gain a working knowledge of basic counseling processes,” Peters said. “The need for training has been recognized by many within the field because law student academic issues are often created or complicated by stress of a personal origin.”
Prior to the conference, encouraging academic support professionals to attend, Russell A. McClain, assistant professor and director of the academic achievement program at the University of Maryland School of Law, said the conference was the first of its kind for current academic support professionals within legal education.
“Attendees will have a hands-on opportunity to learn, develop, and reinforce skills used every day in our profession,” McClain said. “Where so many of us rely on intuition, this will give us direction and training, so we can learn what kinds of counseling approaches work, what kinds of ‘normal’ Academic Support Professionals counseling responses may be counter-productive, and how we can best serve our students in this regard.”
Click here for program details about the conference.
Click here for biographies of the teaching team for the conference.