Educational Psychology student, Emily Colton, is the recipient of the Potential School Counselors Scholarship presented by the Minnesota School Counselors Association (MSCA). It is the only scholarship MSCA offers for school counseling graduate students. The award recognizes someone who has shown that he or she has a high potential for continued contribution to MSCA and the field of school counseling in his or her future career.

Emily is a part of the Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology (CSPP) program and her specific track is in school counseling. She is particularly interested in elementary school counseling.

This year, Emily proposed and has been leading a study on school counselor documentation along with co-authors Dr. Marguerite Ohrtman and Sarah Cronin. This study explores what methods school counselors use to document student contact or contact with teachers, administrators, or parents, what methods of documentation school counselors perceive as ethical, and other variables that might be related to documentation practices. There is notable paucity of research in this area, so this is an exploratory study that Emily hopes to build upon in the future.
Emily was involved with MSCA in the Graduate Student Task Force in spring 2015, and her focus was on getting graduate students more involved in MSCA. She redesigned the brochure this past winter and has presented twice at the MSCA annual conference. Emily will be presenting for a third time and will receive her award from Dr. Marguerite Ohrtman at MSCA’s conference in May in Brainerd, Minnesota.