Feelings of empowerment among students are crucial prerequisites to their participation in change agency in both educational and non-educational settings. Educators notice a compelling correlation between student empowerment and academic achievement and other positive outcomes in K-12 educational environments. School counselors are optimally…

While helping students transition to a post-pandemic future, school counselors may inadvertently be overlooking a vital source of resiliency: strengths, opportunities, and resources in the student's past. By using solution-focused scaling, school counselors can enhance students' well-being by identifying and amplifying how they have already…

English language learners (ELLs) experience higher barriers to education than non-ELLs. School counselors are uniquely positioned to identify and respond to the needs of these students. This phenomenological study explored the advocacy efforts of 14 school counselors working with ELLs. Major themes included creating space for culture and context,…

Photovoice is an innovative approach that uses photography to promote empowerment and social action. Although photovoice has been recognized as a valuable intervention for youth, projects involving this approach primarily have been facilitated by university-school partnerships or community organizations. Aligned with the American School Counselor…

Black males are often underrepresented in postsecondary education settings and frequently encounter many barriers in getting to college. Our aim in this qualitative investigation was to understand the precollege and college experiences of Black males who successfully enrolled in a postsecondary institution. Through a focus group interview, seven…

There is a dearth of literature that has empirically examined ecological factors that influence school counselors' engagement in leadership. Thus, using hierarchical regression analysis, we examined whether sociocultural factors (i.e., race/ethnicity, childhood socioeconomic status, current socioeconomic status, age, gender), professional…

Adolescent Asian American males frequently encounter prejudice, discrimination, and emasculation, which result from and are exacerbated by the myth of the "model minority" group. This article provides school counselors with a group intervention, based on a collectivism and resiliency framework, for working with Asian American adolescent…

We applied a qualitative inquiry to explore the experiences of African American youth engaging in a group intervention at an urban high school. Group topics were tailored to the needs of prospective first-generation college students to enhance youth social and academic capitol and identity strengthening. Experiences included changed perspectives…

Over the past two decades, research on urban schools has focused predominantly on achievement gaps. However, achievement gaps exist because of gaps in opportunities for urban, low-income, and racially/ethnically diverse students. Partnerships among schools, families, and communities can provide the enrichment opportunities, support, resources, and…

School counselors are uniquely positioned to promote college going and improve lagging postsecondary matriculation for Latino men. Hipolito-Delgado and Lee's empowerment framework guided this narrative inquiry to consider how school counselors (dis)empower Latinos via (in)access to college-going information. Findings revealed that participants…

Community asset mapping is an approach that school counselors can use to locate resources to meet the needs of families, schools, and communities. This article provides step-by-step instructions on how school counselors might use community asset mapping to address the needs of their population(s), illustrated with an example of implementation in a…

This phenomenological study sought to understand how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) college students described their high school experiences and their later transitions to college. The study data revealed five findings: (a) enduring unsupportive/hostile educational environments, (b) experiencing a lack of family and social…

A qualitative research study was conducted with 15 school counselors to identify the strategies they used to empower Chicana/o and Latina/o high school students. The findings of this study revealed that participants facilitated student empowerment by developing personal relationships with students, involving alumni, building sociocultural…