Hi, my name is Kelly Flanagan.  I’m currently in my second year of Suffolk’s school counseling program. I am also getting the new College Counseling Certificate that Suffolk just started. I have an internship at Brighton High School, a Boston Public school.

My first year of classes gave me great preparation for my internship this year.  We explored counseling theories, actual counseling practices, counseling legal issues and a host of other items.  I really enjoyed Suffolk’s unique take on the pre-practicum required of all candidates for MA initial counselor licensure.  Suffolk (unlike any other program in Boston) allows you to spend a day at multiple schools (instead of multiple days at one school) so that you can really see the similarities and differences of counseling offices in private, public, large, small, rural, urban, schools.  It also helped me choose which schools I wanted to apply to for an internship, in addition to helping me start my professional network.

I also chose Suffolk for its great location.  The time and location of my classes allowed me to keep the job I held previously to graduate school.  Its’ also been a great central spot to commute to and from my internship site and my apartment in Cambridge.

The addition of the College Counseling Certificate was the wonderful icing on the cake for me. When Dr. Tim Poynton mentioned the possibility, I jumped on the opportunity to make myself a little more unique from a job application perspective.  Though I initially chose it to make myself more marketable, I’ve been really pleased with the knowledge I’ve gained.  I have used several items in my internship to help students apply and prepare for college.