University of Wyoming College of Education Spring 2018

EMPOWERING
WYOMING’S STUDENTS
THROUGH LITERACY
Becoming a
Better Counselor
from Within
By: Dan Robertson, LRCC executive director and
assistant professor
With a vision of empowering literacy through evidence-based
practices, the Literacy Research Center and Clinic (LRCC)
engages in teaching and researching how Wyoming students
think and engage with, acquire knowledge from, and produce a
variety of texts, as well as how teachers facilitate these processes.
“When students can more effectively process and produce
texts, and teachers can support the students’ abilities, the
potential for those students to achieve personal, economic,
and social fulfillment greatly increases,” says Dana Robertson,
LRCC executive director and assistant professor of
elementary and early childhood education. “This will in turn
improve quality of life for students, their families and their
communities.”
Since opening its doors in March 2014, the LRCC
has worked in 17 Wyoming counties, and 28 schools and
centers. Professional development and research partnerships
have helped more than 2,000 teachers in the state hone
their instructional methods to advance countless students’
literacy learning. The LRCC also organizes an annual literacy
conference to ensure Wyoming educators are exposed to the
latest research and best practices in literacy education.
The center has supported literacy development for more
than 420 Wyoming families through in-home literacy
practices and coached 56 master’s and undergraduate students
as they worked with more than 80 school-age students in
literacy tutoring experiences.
“There is tremendous pride in knowing the successes
the LRCC has enjoyed promoting literacy learning and
instruction in Wyoming’s schools and centers, and with
families across the state.” says Robertson.
On the UW campus, the LRCC also has provided
numerous graduate assistantships for doctoral work in
literacy, and the literacy Ph.D. program continues to grow
in number, international reputation and competitiveness.
The program has brought international literacy graduate
students to Wyoming from as far away as Ghana, Russia and
Uzbekistan.
The release of the 2017-18 strategic plan outlines the
direction of the LRCC in the coming years. At the core of the
LRCC’s work are beliefs that literacy is supported through
the connection of rigorous research to teaching practice,
collaborating and sharing responsibility among partners,
empowering students and teachers, and ensuring equitable
opportunities for all students to engage in active, informed
citizenship and to succeed in a sustainable global economy.
Through impactful research and scholarship, empowering
professional learning opportunities and access the clinical
literacy services, the LRCC is committed to the land-grant
mission of the University of Wyoming, and to supporting
the College of Education’s rise to a pre-eminent institution
of higher education.
View the LRCC strategic plan for 2017-22: uwyo.edu/
education/lrcc/_files/documents/lrcc-strategic-plan.pdf
By: Jason Harper
A University of Wyoming College
of Education master’s student in
counseling, Jessica Ryan of Grove City,
Pa, was recently named a co-grand prize
winner of the American Counseling
Association’s (ACA) graduate student
essay contest. Ryan’s submission was
selected from over 200 ACA student
member submissions. Lynne Shayko
of Kent State University was the grand
prize co-winner.
Ryan’s submission competed
under the Tomorrow’s Counselor
Competition. The essay responded
to the question, “As a professional
counselor, how would you promote
openness and inclusion in your work?
Furthermore, how would you reach
out and support under-served and
underrepresented clients?”
In Ryan’s answer she expressed the
need for counselors to become aware of
their own biases that have been created
by their lenses and life experiences. She
explains that these perspectives are not
wrong or bad, but that those in the
profession must recognize and confront
these biases so as to not let them
influence their treatment of colleagues
and clients.
She goes on to share that the
first step she will make to promote
openness and inclusion is to create
a compassionate and safe space
within herself to confront the
difficult experiences from her life
that could influence her actions. She
will also foster difficult and honest
conversations with people who have
experiences different from her own in
order become a better counselor.
“I am pursuing a degree in counseling
to support people through the process
of becoming themselves, Ryan says, “I
eventually want to combine counseling
with my previous work in personal
growth, mindfulness and yoga. I hope
to use all of those modalities to address
intergenerational and systemic trauma,
how our bodies hold individual and
cultural life experiences, and advocate
for mental, emotional, physical and
spiritual health for all beings.”
Ryan cites President Laurie Nichols’
commitment to first generation college
students and other underrepresented
groups as something she admired at
UW. “As a female, first-generation
college student, I know that student
loans, unshared experiences from
families, classmates and instructors,
and a perceived lack the of support can
make going to college daunting,” says
Jessica Ryan,
master’s student
in counseling.
PHOTO BY
AMANDA
CLOWER
Ryan. “It’s nice to know that there are
UW administrators who are in these
students’ corners.”
Ryan and the other awardees
traveled to the ACA 2018 Conference
and Expo in Atlanta, Ga from April
25-26, 2018, to be honored at an
awards ceremony. Their essays will
be published in a mid-year edition of
Counseling Today.
The ACA has supported graduate
students through scholarship awards
for attendance at the ACA Annual
Conference and Expo, by supporting
the Graduate Student/New Professional
Center and including special education
events at the annual conference. The
association hopes this support will
help more counseling students become
involved in the profession.
“I have seen a lot of despair, yet
I have so much faith and belief
in resiliency, healing, and love,” Ryan
says. “If we can find those things within
ourselves, we are better equipped to
find ways of offering them to others.”
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