OSCA/ACOSO is pleased to announce our 2023 Fall Conference Keynote Speakers:

Dr. James Makokis and Anthony Johnson

The Amazing Two Spirit Couple is on a mission to raise awareness to create equal access for LGBTQ2S & Indigenous populations. Their ability to blend their personal experiences with high-level expertise creates new foundations of understanding for the acceptance of individuals while empowering individuals to give them tools and strategies for how they can be a part of the solution through allyship and unity. In 2019, Dr Makokis competed alongside his husband Anthony Johnson as "Team Ahkameyimok" on the Amazing Race Canada and won, becoming the first two-spirit, Indigenous, married couple in the world to do so.

Next session: April 3 to June 2, 2023

Registration: Now open!

• Taught virtually by a current Ontario Guidance Counsellor.
• Participants sign up for Part 1 or Part 2 or the Specialist.

For further information, please visit www.osca.ca and go to the AQ section at the top of the main webpage.

Cost: $650
No textbook

Includes a one year OSCA-ACOSO: AQ subscription, if one does not have an active subscription and one link for a copy of Ethical Guidelines.

Registration closes March 27 or sooner when session capacity is reached.

Apply early to avoid disappointment!

> Summer Session will be July 3 to July 31 with registration opening up later in the spring <

 

*Applications are now OPEN!*

Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services is proud to announce the reopening of the Don McBain Memorial Award for its third year, in honour of the late OAHS founder and Executive Director. This award is comprised of (3) $5,000 scholarships that will be distributed annually to (3) Indigenous students from Ontario pursuing their first year of post-secondary studies.

Thursday, May 4, 2023
Mohawk College, Fennell Campus, 135 Fennell Ave W.
McIntyre Performing Arts Centre

Session 1: 9:00 - 11:00am
Session 2: 1:00 - 3:00pm
Parent Session: 6:00 - 8:00pm (details to follow)

Mohawk College would like to invite teachers, guidance counsellors and administrators from the school boards to join us for this important keynote and to be part of the discussion on supporting student mental health.

We are pleased to welcome student mental health experts, Dr. B. Janet Hibbs and Dr. Anthony Rostain, co-authors of The Stressed Years of Their Lives, to discuss the rise of mental health concerns in students pursuing and enrolled in higher education. Learn what educators, parents and families can do to support students in preparing for, surviving and thriving in the post-secondary environment.
Learn more!

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Mohawk College Student Recruitment would like to offer your high school an opportunity to tour the Stoney Creek Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship campus. We will show the students around campus, tour our shops and labs so they can discover and learn more about the many trades programs we offer. Mohawk annually serves 2,400 apprenticeship students and is one of the largest trainers of apprentices in Ontario.

Winter Stoney Creek tour dates will be booked on a first come, first serve basis and these times cannot be adjusted. We will be offering morning and afternoon tours, each one will be 1.5 hours long and busing costs will be the responsibility of the school.

We have the following dates available:

Thursday, March 9, 2023
9:30am - 11:00am
10:00am - 11:30am
12:00pm - 1:30pm
12:30pm - 2:00pm

Wednesday, March 22, 2023
9:30am - 11:00am
10:00am - 11:30am
12:00pm - 1:30pm
12:30pm - 2:00pm

**Please request preferred time slot.

Tour details:

• We request a ratio of one chaperone for every 15 students attending the campus tour.
• Appropriate safety attire includes: Closed toe comfortable footwear, hair tied back, safety glasses (to be worn at all times and will be provided on day of tour)
• Students need to eat lunch off campus as we do not have the space to accommodate
• Up to 40 students max from each school, to accommodate all requests
• Visit will include a presentation and general campus tour

Please send an email with your requests in order to secure a date!

Now is the time to nominate a deserving colleague for an OSCA award. Perhaps it is that person who has created a great resource that has allowed students to create their own pathway? Maybe you know a guidance counsellor who is the ''go-to'' person at your school? Perhaps a deserving community partner that provides excellent support for your school?

You have until September 18, 2023 11:59 p.m. to nominate someone, but why not do it now? 
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Chacun et chacune de nous connaît un collègue innovateur, qui accomplit avec enthousiasme son travail auprès des élèves de son école. Pourquoi ne pas reconnaître leur contribution à notre profession en posant leur candidature à l''un des prix de l''ACOSO? Pour poser la candidature de quelqu''un, appuyez sur le lien de la mise en candidature. Toutes les mises en candidature doivent être soumises en ligne d''ici le 18 septembre 2023 à 23h59.

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The Howard R. Beattie Award for Contribution to Counsellor Professional Development

This award is presented to a guidance counsellor who has created new and beneficial ideas and techniques for professional use and communicated these through such means as workshops, local leadership and the organization of a conference or guidance professional development activities. 

The Student Awards Nominations are here! Please nominate a deserving student today within five Post Graduate Pathways;

• Apprenticeship,
• College,
• Community Living,
• University,
• Workplace. 

Details can be found on the nomination form/link. 

The link is live on the OSCA website. You can access the nomination form through it. The nominations will close on May 5, 2023. Nominate a student today!

I am honoured and humbled to continue to serve as Director of Governance on the OSCA/ACOSO Board of Directors. It has been an absolute pleasure over the past two years to work alongside a team of dedicated guidance teacher-counsellors who continue to lead the way in Guidance and Career Education in Ontario. I am grateful to my colleagues on the OSCA/ACOSO Board from whom I learn and I am inspired to continue to do my best.

Over the past twenty years in education, I have been privileged to work with students and staff in a variety of settings from grades nine through 12. My experiences as a Social Science Teacher, Gifted Facilitator, Special Education Teacher, Student Leadership Teacher, and Student Success Teacher, have all paved the pathway for a role in Guidance. 

This year, I accepted the position as Secondary Guidance Resource Teacher with the TCDSB. I am truly a lifelong learner who continues to strive to make a positive impact by offering support and resources to my colleagues so they may continue to make valuable contributions in their schools.

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Je suis honorée et touchée de pouvoir continuer à occuper le poste de directrice de la gouvernance au sein du conseil d’administration de l’OSCA/ACOSO. Ce fut un plaisir absolu au cours des deux dernières années de travailler avec une équipe d’enseignants-conseillers en orientation dévoués qui continue à ouvrir la voie dans le domaine de l’orientation et de la formation au cheminement de carrière en Ontario. Je suis reconnaissante envers mes collègues du conseil d’administration de l’OSCA/ACOSO auprès desquels j’apprends et je suis inspirée de continuer à faire de mon mieux.

Au cours des 20 dernières années en éducation, j’ai eu le privilège de travailler avec des élèves et du personnel dans divers contextes, de la 9e à la 12e année. Mes expériences en tant qu’enseignante de sciences sociales, facilitatrice en douance, enseignante en éducation spécialisée et enseignante responsable de la réussite des élèves m’ont préparée à un rôle en orientation.

Cette année, j’ai accepté le poste d’enseignante-ressource en orientation au niveau secondaire au TCDSB. Je suis véritablement une apprenante à vie qui continue de s’efforcer à apporter un impact positif en offrant un soutien et des ressources à mes collègues afin qu’ils puissent continuer à apporter une contribution précieuse à leurs écoles.

COVID-19 brought many long-standing equity issues connected to education and work to the forefront. Early unemployment figures showed racialized Canadians’ employment was hit harder than that of white Canadians – a trend that continued to affect Black, Indigenous and other racialized individuals as the pandemic persisted. Front-line workers navigated increasingly precarious conditions and many women left the workforce, dropping the female labour-force participation rate to its lowest level in 30 years. Career professionals and those they serve grappled with uneven access to services and technology after lockdowns shuttered offices across the country.

However, the pandemic also brought increased recognition that – with a grounding in social justice – career development can be a powerful tool to challenge inequities and to advance the public good. Services, programs, advocacy and education can recognize and work to change the systemic barriers that prevent all individuals from having equal opportunity to seek work that is meaningful to them and meets their needs.

A new survey by Wiley finds that one-fourth of students said they would be more invested in their courses if they learned in a way that emulated their future careers.

Undergraduate students are struggling to stay engaged in class—and they believe that material more directly connected to real-life issues could help solve the problem.

That’s a key finding of the recent State of the Student 2022 survey by the academic publishing company Wiley, which noted that 55 percent of undergraduate and 38 percent of graduate students said they struggle to remain interested in their classes. The same proportion of undergraduates and 34 percent of graduate students also said they have trouble retaining the material they learn.

"Tell me about yourself."

Whenever I hear those four words, my brain flatlines. I scramble for an answer and wonder if there’s anything interesting to say at all. Without exception, my response is the same: every time I’m asked to describe my life, I describe my job.

Work has always anchored my identity. It was the engine that propelled my family from China to Canada in 1998, two years before I was born, and tales of my father’s heroic work ethic and self-sacrifice have played for years like a movie montage in my mind. There he is, waiting at a bus stop in suburban Toronto, starting his 90-minute commute to an IT job downtown. There he is, hunched in a chair at the Chapters bookstore near our home, poring over volumes about computer coding. There he is in our living room, where I’m lying on the couch as he paces with a book in hand, mumbling new English words to himself. "Dexterity," he says. "Dexterity, dexterity, dexterity."

We've had a great response to this year's free, monthly webinar series for OSCA/ACOSO subscribers and we thank you for the interest you have shown in the topics we've offered! Your input in helping us to book future professional development for these webinars is very important to us. Please use the form linked below to indicate potential topics of interest that you would like to see in our 2023-24 OSCA Webinar Series. This form will be open until April 15.