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| > Special Care Counselling > Events Announcements Archive |
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| News |
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| Congratulations to Raldali Pierre - Recipient of the Tom McGrath Award |
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| On behalf of the Special Care Counselling Department we want to offer our congratulations to Raldali Pierre for unanimously receiving the Tom McGrath Award!! The committee strongly felt that she had extensive volunteer work in the field. Her letter of intent eloquently identified her growth personally and professionally; how her experiences in her third year classes as well as in stage gave her the unique experience to enhance her knowledge and understanding of youth work, enhanced her sensitivity towards youth, contributed towards her academic learning as well as the opportunity to build her skills. Her letter also described how all the professionals with whom Raldali worked welcomed her as a colleague and that the clients in stage with whom she worked offered their many thanks. Congratulations once again, Raldali!! |
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| Congratulations to the following students that were hired as Special Care Counsellors after completing their stage! |
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| Batshaw Youth and Family Centres |
| Leah Parisella |
Stefani Giorgi |
Jomelle Augustin |
John Torreblanco |
| Gaby Cabral |
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| Amitie |
| Adella MacLean |
Francois Louis |
Rena Cordato |
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| Bayview |
| Melissa Heaven |
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| Giant Steps |
| Vanessa Di Zazzo |
Sonia D'Orso |
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| Les Centres Jeunesse de la Montérégie |
| Cassandre Milard |
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| Riverside School Board |
| Charlene Clarke |
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| Projet TED |
| Melissa Heaven |
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| West Montreal Readaptation Centre |
| Vikhar Khan |
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| Sir Wilfred Laurier School |
| Suzanne Masson: Crestview Elementary Board |
| Norma Yvonne: Laval Liberty High School |
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| Montreal Association for the Blind |
| Sarah MacEaney |
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| Alumni News: |
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| Former SCC grad Donna Suess has opened a business called Active Minds. Click here to read more |
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| SCC Teacher Gave Presentation on Adolescence |
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| Janice Clarini gave a presentation entitled "Adolescence, Myths and Facts" on Wednesday, November 15th from 7-9 PM in room C-246 at Heritage Regional High School, 7445 Ch. Chambly, St. Hubert, QC. Click here to read more |
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| Male Students in SCC: A Minority, But Making Their Mark |
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| As is the case with programs for many other helping professions, the large majority of students attracted to the SCC program are women. Over the years, the average percentage of male students is in the 10 to 15% range . This state of affairs has nothing to do with males being somehow less suited for the demands of helping work in the SCC field. Rather, messages from the surrounding culture about appropriate gender roles may be at work in a process that leads to many men simply not considering to develop talents they may have for social and community service. This is unfortunate because there are a host of examples in the field of men doing important and highly satisfying work. |
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| Given the trends that seem to orient males to other fields, we were interested in learning about the paths that brought some of our current male students to the Special Care Counselling program. We sought out the perspective of the two current students and a recent graduate of the SCC program. Below you'll find their comments. |
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Cory Binning (please click his name to show or hide his comments)
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| (Cory will be entering the third year of the SCC program. His first two fieldwork engagements were with youth with academic and behavioural problems in schools and in a residential program.) |
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| What was your academic or work experience before coming to SCC? |
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| Cory mentions that he has been on staff for several summers at the YMCA Day Camp on the West Island. Prior to coming to Vanier, he had completed 2years in the Social Science program at John Abbott College |
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| Had you had experience with helping work before your studies here? |
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| At the YMCA Day Camp, Cory worked with children with Down Syndrome, autism and behavioural problems. |
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| What influenced your decision to choose to study in SCC ? What was the attraction of this field? |
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| "I liked the idea of having an impact on the life of a child through helping work. I saw helping skills in action at the Day Camp and was impressed." |
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| Cory adds that he was motivated by this to develop his own abilities further. At the camp, working with many children from financially-disadvantaged backgrounds and kids who had no adult role models, he saw the potential to have constructive impact. |
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| How did you feel as a man coming into a field in which the majority of students and practitioners are women? |
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| "At first I felt a little out of place, but only for a short time." Cory says that it's not an issue now: "I don't think of myself as one of the five males in my year in the program. " |
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| Were there role models that affected your choice to come to SCC? |
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| Cory points to older colleagues at the Y day camps and a high school teacher who was instrumental in introducing him to the camp work, as key influential figures. |
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| What type of work do you see yourself doing ultimately in the SCC field? |
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| Cory indicates that, initially, he had seen himself headed for involvement with children with Down Syndrome. But since his experience in Stage this year, his interest has changed more towards work with youth with behavioural or academic issues, perhaps in schools or group homes. He says that he definitely plans to continue his studies in the helping field at the university level. |
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| What suggestions, perspective might you offer other males who are contemplating applying to study in the SCC field? |
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| "I guess the way I try to look at it is that this is not a normal college course; it's a tech program." And that leads to an interesting viewpoint : |
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| "Everything I do in the program reflects me as a future worker . The course is a career in itself. I try to keep that as the focus." |
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| Cory says he sees the program as offering important challenges that mirror those that will come in his future work in the field. Cory's next stage, in Fall 2006, will be at an alternative school in the Batshaw Youth and Family Services system. |
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François Louis (please click his name to show or hide his comments)
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| (François will also be entering the third year of the SCC program. His first two fieldwork placements have been in settings serving elderly people losing autonomy and adults with mental illness.) |
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| What was your academic or work experience before coming to SCC? |
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| "I was out of school for eight years before coming to SCC. I worked full time as a cook." |
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| Had you had experience with helping work before your studies here? |
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| François was a youth leader in Boston for five years. |
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| "I was involved in helping them in different ways. I helped with crises. Listening was a very important part of the work." |
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| What influenced your decision to choose to study in SCC ? What was the attraction of this field? |
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| "Having the youth leader experience. The youths would call me and not other adults." |
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| François sees the listening that he was able to offer as a key ingredient in his ability to "connect". He remarks that he wanted to add to this and develop his skills further. |
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| How did you feel as a man coming into a field in which the majority of students and practitioners are women? |
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| "I didn't know that would be the case. I remember the first class; that was a bit of a shock." |
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| Were there role models that affected your choice to come to SCC? |
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| "Well.... my wife kept on saying that she could see me working with children and youth and that had an influence." |
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| What type of work do you see yourself doing ultimately in the SCC field? |
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| "I can see myself working with children or adolescents, because of my upbringing. It was tough, and I'd like to help others." |
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| What suggestions, perspective might you offer other males who are contemplating applying to study in the SCC field? |
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| "If they have a sensitive heart, if they like to help people out, then they will enjoy becoming an SCC. Because this is the field that allows them to reach out." |
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| François mentions also that he has been impressed by the real knowledge of the current helping field experience that teachers in SCC bring to their work. |
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| Although he still holds to the possibility of a future in youth work, François will continue to explore work in community mental health in his last stage at a downtown community support service for adults with severe mental illness. |
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John Quesnel (please click his name to show or hide his comments)
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| (John graduated from the SCC program three years ago. He has been working for the past two years as a full-time staff member of the Mental Health team at Jewish Family Services, serving adults in the community with mental illness. John sent a written text in response to our questions and it is included below in full.) |
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| What was your academic or work experience before coming to SCC? |
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| Prior to my enrollment in the SCC program, my work experience had been from manual labour jobs. |
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| My latest academic experience had been the completion of secondary studies, after which I had spent eight years working as an assembler and quality control supervisor for a company that produced architectural lighting fixtures. |
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| Had you had experience with helping work before your studies here? |
| What influenced your decision to choose to study in SCC ? What was the attraction of this field? |
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| I had gained experience in helping/care-giving through life events and through friendships that were help-oriented. Periods of care-giving were needed with two members of my family and a helping relationship developed over a few years between myself and the grandmother of my best friend. |
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| About seven years before entering SCC, my father was recovering from a stroke that had left him partially and temporarily paralyzed. My siblings and I contributed to his recovery by providing physiotherapy on an alternating schedule, by request from a professional therapist. As I observed all the workers involved in my father's recovery, I came to admire their efforts and accomplishments. |
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| Three years later, I myself became a physiotherapy patient as treatment for the after-effects of a major automobile accident. Again, I was quite impressed with the helping role performed by the therapists. Moreover, I formed bonds of mutual emotional support with other patients in the physiotherapy clinic that I attended for a period of three years. |
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| In the few years preceding and following my accident, I voluntarily provided grocery shopping and medical accompaniments to my best friend's grandmother. She was a widow who suffered from loneliness and gradual loss of autonomy. The outings usually began and ended with friendly home visits that were mutually enjoyed. |
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| Another significant influence in my career choice was a book that I read during my recovery. The content was a thorough analysis of a particular personality type, of which I considered myself to be. One chapter of the book dealt with matching personalities with careers. It left me with very little doubt that the field of work to which I was most inclined was that of counseling and intervention. |
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| In summary, my reasons for choosing SCC as a career was its appeal to my interest in other people's problems, my affinity for analyzing human behaviors, and my deep-rooted passion for nurturing. |
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| How did you feel as a man coming into a field in which the majority of students and practitioners are women? |
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| Shortly after beginning the SCC program and discovering that I was one of four males amongst about sixty female students, I felt self-conscious in that I wondered what kind of image I presented to my classmates and to any person with awareness of the gender imbalance in this profession. However, having been raised in a family with five sisters (and two brothers who were much older) allowed me to feel a sense of familiarity and ease with the situation after the initial awkwardness had dissolved. |
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| What type of work do you see yourself doing ultimately in the SCC field? |
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| Initially, my long term goal was to work with older adults suffering from isolation and loss of autonomy. This remained my objective until I worked in a stage placement with clients who have mental health difficulties. The psychological rewards of this experience were such that the clientele in question became the primary focus of my subsequent job search. |
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| What suggestions, perspective might you offer other males who are contemplating applying to study in the SCC field? |
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| The insight that I offer to any prospective male SCC student would be the following. One must carefully and truthfully consider one's own values and ambitions when planning for a career in this field. Levels of job security and salary should be weighed against psychological rewards and personal development. Otherwise said, be realistic in your expectations of the kind of lifestyle that will accompany this career. The entire program is in itself a reward that will enrich your personality forever. Yet for certain individuals, it is best followed by a plan for further education, perhaps combined with or in succession to relevant work experience. |
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