In March 2024, Mrs. Harmon, Mrs. Johnson, and Dr. Nuckols from the Stanford OHS Counseling Office traveled to Athens, Greece to attend the 2024 International School Counseling Association (ISCA) conference. The conference offered three days of workshops, keynote sessions, and opportunities for networking with the community of international school counselors. It was a fantastic trip! In this article, we hope to highlight some of what we learned and experienced during the conference.
ISCA is a relatively young organization which was formed in 2014 to support the needs of international school counselors. Schools represented in ISCA are primarily international schools in the tradition of the Council of International Schools, of which Stanford OHS is a member. (See www.cois.org for more information about CIS.) Historically, such schools deliver instruction in English and may be located anywhere in the world.
We, in the Stanford OHS Counseling Office, have found the perspectives of ISCA well-suited to the international scope of our school community, and the strong commitment noted in our mission statement to bring together “students with diverse backgrounds from across the world” in our academic and extracurricular programs.
The organization has developed its own International Model for School Counseling Programs, a model which advocates for attention to students’ growth in the areas of global perspective and identity development along with other competency areas such as social-emotional learning, academic achievement, and college and career exploration. ISCA provides members with in-depth resources relevant to all of these important areas of student growth and development and also facilitates meeting and networking with other counseling professionals around the world.
Conference Highlights
KEYNOTE SPEAKER The central theme of the conference was “Safe and Sound,” which invited sessions on social-emotional learning as well as the interwoven topics of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. Social justice and racial equity practitioner Jacinta Williams led the opening session, delivered the keynote address “On the Table and In Focus: Persevering with Race Dialogue,” and offered several follow-up sessions on related topics. The keynote session in particular emphasized exploring new ways to think about and engage in conversations about race and offered practical tools for exploring barriers to engaging in such discussions. The speaker demonstrated deep knowledge of the subject matter and skill in engaging the audience in an effective and transformative discussion.
COLLABORATIVE CARE PLANS This breakout session described a comprehensive approach to providing support to students going through annual transitions common in international schools. Every year, such schools may see a significant segment of their student population entering as newcomers or leaving the school at the end of the year, as their families move to new locations for employment reasons. Students staying at the school from one year to the next are also affected by changing friendship constellations. Although Stanford OHS is not a typical international school in this regard, the information provided may be helpful to our students whose families relocate during the school year and more generally with our process of welcoming and onboarding new students.
THE FLOURISHING COUNSELOR This session, which discussed research on happiness and positive psychology, offered an especially broad range of strategies to bring into daily counseling work with students. The presenter gave many examples showing how to use mindfulness and acceptance techniques to enhance students’ self-awareness and emotional regulation. This session also provided a wealth of resources in the area of positive psychology.
IMPOSTER SYNDROME During this session, attendees gained a deeper understanding of imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is defined as a “phrase used to describe feelings of self-doubt or inadequacy often experienced by otherwise high achieving individuals” (NIH, 2023). This session offered information on how to be culturally responsive to an individual as well as a whole school community, to better support students who are struggling and to create a school culture that is safe, inclusive and collaborative.
VARIETIES OF MINDFULNESS EXPERIENCE On Saturday, Dr. Nuckols presented a conference session on mindfulness activities and programs at Stanford OHS. Counselors attending the session learned about efforts to incorporate mindfulness into wellness and counseling programs at our school, and they engaged in activities demonstrating exercises on directing attention, exploring motivations, and cultivating self-compassion. Participants enjoyed a lively discussion of mindfulness programs at different schools around the world and the elements of these programs that have proved most successful.
CITY HOST TOURS AND KOMBOLOI ISCA conferences always aim to highlight and celebrate the culture of the location hosting the event. In keeping with this tradition, attendees were presented with a selection of evening “City Host Tours” taking small groups into Athens for experiences of the history, art, music, and cuisine of Greece. Also, a morning break during the conference offered information and materials for making “Komboloi” or Greek Worry Beads, which were described as relaxation tools originally created by monks from Mount Athos who used them for prayer.
REFLECTIONS We found the ISCA 2024 conference to be well-organized, engaging, and overall an outstanding professional development opportunity. In addition to the workshops highlighted above, we attended breakout sessions on Calming the Storm, Safe Schools and Strong Programs, School Counseling and Cinema, Mixed Culture Parents and Third Culture Kids, and Unlocking Academic Wellbeing. The speakers and presenters brought expertise in counseling and valuable perspectives drawn from the work they do in their diverse international school contexts. The counseling office will make use of what we learned and the resources we discovered through attending the conference. We also hope to build further connections with ISCA and with the international school counseling community, as we support our students, wherever they live in the world, in developing a global perspective and thriving in our unique school community.