PSCA Conference | December 2-4, 2026 | State College, PA
We look forward to seeing you next year!
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Janus
Have you considered that leadership skills are built in everyday moments? All leadership moments make a positive impact! Join us in discussing how a little bit of leadership does, in fact, go a long way! This session focuses on understanding how referent and expert power can empower school counselors to effectively use strategies to build trust, work with others, advocate for students and school counseling programs, and share their expertise as leaders within their school community.
Lead Presenter: Lauren Clemens
This session explores an ASCA-aligned approach to career development through data-informed planning, community partnerships, experiential learning, and schoolwide programming. While this work begins in elementary school, the strategies can be adapted across all grade levels. Participants will learn how career days, community experiences, project-based learning, and future-ready skills can be embedded into Tier 1 supports to strengthen college and career readiness.
Lead Presenter: Zachary Watters
PSCA is looking to build and engage school counselor leaders! This inspiring and informative session is designed to educate and empower current and future leaders! We’ll explore ways to engage in our state association, offer insight into policy governance, and provide pathways to begin advocating for students and school counselors!
Lead Presenter: Julie Cerrito
Graduate Ambassadors in School Counseling represent a unique and powerful bridge between academic preparation and professional practice. Serving as both student leaders and advocates, these individuals embody the next generation of school counseling professionals bringing fresh perspectives, innovative ideas, and a deep commitment to student success. This presentation will explore the multifaceted role of Graduate Ambassadors, highlighting their leadership, advocacy, and service.
Lead Presenter: Diana Chandra
The transition to middle school is tough! With intentional transition support from school counselors, students are more likely to stay engaged and adjust well. This session highlights collaborative, effective strategies to strengthen the transition. Take a deep dive into orientation events, family partnerships, staff engagement, and peer mentoring to ensure every student begins middle school with confidence and connection. Participants will gain tools, ideas, and assessments to enhance schoolwide transitions.
Lead Presenter: Casandra Jones
This interactive session guides participants through developing a data-informed school counseling program aligned with the ASCA National Model. Attendees will learn to identify needs using student data, establish mission and vision statements, clarify the counselor’s role within MTSS, balance ideals with resource constraints, and sustain effectiveness through ongoing data review and advisory council feedback.
Lead Presenter: Heather Karmazin
As more students receive special education services, schools must rethink counseling beyond IEP-related services. This session explores how a specialized school counseling program evolved into a data-driven, tiered system supporting the whole child. Learn how aligning counseling curriculum with PDE regulations, MTSS, and comprehensive school counseling practices promotes equitable access to social/emotional, academic, and life readiness skills for all learners.
Lead Presenter: Billie Jean Miller
School Counselors are not just leaders within the educational environment; we are the ones who are most equipped to ensure social justice and equity for all students. Our position affords us information about students and families that others may not have access to, which provides us with unique opportunities to present their needs to district officials and stakeholders within the community while maintaining confidentiality.
Lead Presenter: Stephen Sharp
Suicide is a leading cause of death for youth, and suicide rates for Black and LGBTQIA+ youth are growing faster than for any other identified population or group. School counselors in their roles can support not just healing and recovery, but also lead systemic changes in the school community to promote equity and safety and build a safe and supportive community. This session will identify unique challenges for our most vulnerable students and the key practices that can help to support students.
Lead Presenter: Jane Hale
Student athletes and performing artists both manage demanding academic and extracurricular commitments, often contributing to stress, potential burnout, and increased risk of mental health concerns. Despite these risks, limited research exists that addresses how schools can effectively support these high-achieving students. This presentation aims to provide information for school counselors on how to best support the needs of this population.
Lead Presenter: Shannan Shiderly
Anxiety has increased exponentially over the past decade (McGorry et al., 2025). This increase in prevalence has resulted in increasing numbers of Section 504 plans designed to mitigate anxiety during the school day. Tension exists around how accommodations can be provided while also ensuring the student does not miss classroom instruction. This presentation will focus on providing a brief overview of anxiety as well as discussing research-based accommodations for each tier of MTSS.
Lead Presenter: Bradley Gillespie
In this session, participants will become equipped with practical, evidence-based tier 1 strategies and insights for implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in their schools. Designed for educators and teams ready to take actionable steps, this session explores the comprehensive PBIS framework and its impact on school climate and culture.
Lead Presenter: Margaret Mayberry
Creating a successful K–12 future-readiness program requires more than just activities—it requires shared vision and collaboration. In this session, Camp Hill School District and Xello will demonstrate how they partnered to build a unified K–12 framework. Learn how to align experiences across grade bands, engage key stakeholders, and integrate career exploration into classroom instruction and transition planning to ensure every student has meaningful opportunities to explore, plan, and prepare.
Lead Presenter: Susan Fuller
Walkie/Phone Call. Respond. Band-Aid. Repeat. This school counselor reality is ineffective, exhausting, and inefficient and could lead to burnout and poor workplace well-being. Although challenging, shifting mindset and practice to focus first on serving ALL students will not only improve overall student outcomes but also impact the entire educational community. This shift will transform a school counselor’s developmentally appropriate program and their own sense of accomplishment. Learn how!
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Csordas
This interactive workshop explores how school counselors can ethically integrate expressive arts therapeutically to support student wellness while staying within the scope of practice. Participants will experience practical, low-cost strategies using art, writing, movement, music, and mindfulness to foster emotional regulation, self-awareness, and connection in individual, group, and classroom settings.
Lead Presenter: Tiffany Shimmel
School counselors are increasingly expected to provide classroom lessons on counseling topics, yet many receive limited training in curriculum implementation and aligned lesson planning. This interactive workshop introduces backwards design as a practical framework for counseling curriculum. Participants will align skills, authentic assessments, and 5E lesson plans while exploring resources and collaborators that can support curriculum development within their schools and professional networks.
Lead Presenter: Stephanie DePalmer
Anxiety is the most commonly reported mental health concern amongst today’s children and adolescents. This presentation will contextualize anxiety specific to current-day children and adolescents, including the neurobiology driving it and the clinical array of behavioral manifestations. Recommendations and strategies to use with individual students, within whole classrooms, and across entire school buildings/districts will be provided.
Lead Presenter: Christina Harris
Small counseling groups give students structured opportunities to learn and practice social/emotional skills. This session focuses on what needs to happen inside the circle—the facilitation strategies that turn small groups into meaningful, skill-building, and connective experiences. Participants will explore how structure, predictability, and intentional engagement techniques create the conditions where students feel safe enough to participate and supported enough to practice new behaviors.
Lead Presenter: Sarah Shrewsbury-Braxton
School counselors are uniquely positioned to support Black neurodivergent students and challenge inequitable school practices. Participants will learn a practical framework for promoting belonging, identity affirmation, advocacy, and thriving through five intentional practices. Case examples and implementation strategies will help attendees apply antiracist and neurodiversity-affirming approaches within their own school counseling programs.
Lead Presenter: Jackie Barr
Discover how to build a simple, effective Check-In, Check-Out (CICO) system to support elementary students needing Tier 2 behavior intervention. This session walks you through using meaningful data to identify students, establish baselines, create purposeful point sheets with teachers, and build student ownership through social stories and reward menus. Learn how to implement a smooth daily CICO routine and develop a thoughtful fading plan that promotes independence and long-term success.
Lead Presenter: Chris Corrato
The OBBA made several changes to Federal Aid and Loans respectively. This session will go over all changes, highlight what will come next, and answer questions on how to help counsel families that may or may not be prepared for the new rules and options available.
Lead Presenter: Mark Kiselica
The session will begin with a review of federal activities targeting immigrant communities and their impact on the social lives and mental health of immigrant students. The presenters will highlight the ASCA statement expressing solidarity with immigrants; discuss best school-based practices for fostering support, safety, and healing among traumatized immigrant students; and suggest partnerships with immigrant services organizations to assist immigrant students and families.
Lead Presenter: Margaret Mayberry
Learn about a homegrown peer mentoring program that created meaningful outcomes for both middle and high school students. Attendees will learn how students were selected and supported, how the program was structured, and how it grew into a sustainable model rooted in school culture. Learn how high school mentors earned credits, while middle school mentees saw decreased discipline referrals and improved grades. Practical strategies, implementation tips, and lessons learned!
Lead Presenter: Jeff Hiser
School counselors play a critical role in preparing student-athletes for success beyond the sport. Drawing on expertise in college counseling, NIL education, and human performance, Polaris Athlete leaders Ian Harkness, Drew DeBiasse, and Jeff Hiser will share actionable tools and strategies to help counselors guide student-athletes through recruiting, college planning, identity development, and the opportunities and challenges of today’s evolving athletic landscape.
Lead Presenter: Christina Harris
Every grieving child carries an invisible backpack filled with emotions and experiences. This session explores how grief presents in children and adolescents, common misconceptions about childhood grief, and the unique role school counselors and educators have in supporting grieving students. Participants will leave with practical strategies, intervention ideas, and resources to help create a compassionate, grief-informed school environment.
Lead Presenter: Diana Chandra
Every strong school counseling program begins with a clear vision, and the ASCA National Model provides the roadmap. This session guides participants through the process of implementing the model with fidelity, aligning daily practice with program goals, and using data to demonstrate impact. Explore practical steps for strengthening their programs, improving student outcomes, and working toward formal recognition through RAMP, the PA Diamond Award, and ACSC designation.
Lead Presenter: Cassidy Dawson
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) provides a framework for addressing students’ academic, career, and social/emotional needs. This interactive session examines the school counselor’s role across Tiers 1, 2, and 3 and its alignment with the ASCA National Model. Participants will explore practical interventions, data-informed practices, and collaboration strategies to strengthen MTSS implementation, advocate for appropriate role utilization, and improve student outcomes.
Lead Presenter: Diana Wildermuth
Ethical decision making requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. This session explores “context-responsive” practices with the ASCA Ethical Decision-Making Model. Participants will examine ethical dilemmas through multicultural and diversity-informed lenses, differentiate school counselor roles from other educational professionals, and apply ethical, legal, and policy considerations to cases. Interactive examples will prepare attendees to make thoughtful, student-centered decisions.
Lead Presenter: Deanna Ford
High school counselors are tasked with delivering meaningful career exploration while balancing overwhelming caseloads and competing priorities. This session provides ready-to-use, evidence-based “quick win” strategies that can be implemented immediately with minimal prep and maximum student impact. Participants will explore structured, Tier 1 interventions that build career awareness, align with ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors, and support postsecondary readiness for all students.
Lead Presenter: Emilia Mattucci
Learn how one Pennsylvania high school used school climate improvement to increase attendance and address its Comprehensive School Improvement (CSI) status. Hear from the principal and two school counselors who collaborated to design and implement a successful multi-tiered attendance support plan. This session will highlight practical strategies, counselor-administrator collaboration, and actionable steps participants can use to create their own attendance improvement implementation plan.
Lead Presenter: Melissa Gillard
School counselors and social workers share a common goal of supporting student success, yet collaboration is often inconsistent. This interactive session explores practical, evidence-based strategies for building effective partnerships that address students’ academic, social/emotional, behavioral, and postsecondary needs. Participants will leave with tools to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, improve service delivery, and enhance outcomes for all students.
Lead Presenter: Karen Rubican
Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, high school students enrolled in Pennsylvania public and non-public schools must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) with the U.S. Department of Education or submit the Pennsylvania FAFSA Completion Opt-Out Form before completing high school. (24 P.S. § 16-1617). This session will focus on highlighting implementation strategies to seamlessly integrate this work into your comprehensive school counseling program.
Lead Presenter: Tiffany Shimmel
This session examines the first-year pilot of a new K-5 comprehensive school counseling curriculum. Participants will explore the four phases of implementation including counseling rollout, a unique curriculum writing process, classroom implementation, and year 2 adjustments. Successes, challenges, and barriers encountered throughout the pilot will be discussed, along with considerations for adapting similar curriculum efforts within other organizations.
Lead Presenter: Mark Kiselica
The session will begin with a review of federal activities targeting immigrant communities and their impact on the social lives and mental health of immigrant students. The presenters will highlight the ASCA statement expressing solidarity with immigrants; discuss best school-based practices for fostering support, safety, and healing among traumatized immigrant students; and suggest partnerships with immigrant services organizations to assist immigrant students and families.
Lead Presenter: William Miller
MyCollegeCosts LLC will lead this session to help high school counselors guide 2027 college-bound seniors through financial aid with greater confidence, clarity, and control over affordability decisions. Aimed at students pursuing moderately selective in-state four-year colleges, this session introduces five counselor-led strategies that help them stop waiting for aid offers and start shaping the conversation before they apply.
Lead Presenter: Melissa Gillard
Constant interruptions, walk-ins, and competing demands can leave counselors feeling like firefighters instead of program leaders. This session explores practical strategies for creating structure, setting boundaries, and protecting priorities. Participants will leave with tools to increase student access, manage crises effectively, and build a more intentional and sustainable counseling practice.
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Barna
Sometimes, no matter how often you explain, even the best administrators can misunderstand your role. When this happens, school counselors are more likely to be assigned non-counseling duties. This can be a barrier to comprehensive programming that serves each and every student. In this presentation, attendees will learn about the impact of role confusion, strategies for effective communication with administrators, and additional professional advocacy options for professional role education.
Lead Presenter: Perk Oettinger
Childhood is changing rapidly, requiring educators and school counselors to adapt. Modern students need flexibility, emotional resilience, and strong social skills. A play-based counseling curriculum builds intentional, structured, and engaging activities that build essential social/emotional foundations and move beyond the conventional.
Lead Presenter: Janet Toth
Let’s be honest—sometimes team meetings feel more like the focus is on “can’ts” and “won’ts” rather than productive problem-solving. But what if we flipped the script? In this session, we’ll explore how adopting a solution-focused mindset can turn those heavy, problem-saturated meetings into hopeful, motivating conversations. Rather than digging endlessly into what’s not working, we’ll learn how to focus on the moments that ARE working.
Lead Presenter: Karen Rubican
Pennsylvania school counselors, counselor educators and counseling supervisors have been hard at work developing a framework that aligns with the ASCA National Model, fifth edition, while incorporating Pennsylvania policies and regulations: the Pennsylvania School Counseling Framework. Highlights of the framework, supplemental resources, implementation opportunities, additional professional development opportunities and key updates will be provided in this interactive session.
Lead Presenter: Danielle Schultz
Bring your laptop or device and don’t just learn Canva—create with it to advocate for your school counseling program! In this hands-on session you will design ready-to-use products (flyers, presentations, social media posts, and more) that highlight your impact and promote your program to educational partners. Participate in design challenges, explore creative ideas, and leave with polished, visually appealing materials you can immediately use to promote your program!
Lead Presenter: Molly McDyer Morgan
When Theodore Roosevelt said, “do what you can, with what you have, where you are”, school counselors around the world listened. As school counselors, it’s essential to learn and teach emotional regulation and awareness to students even when we do not have all of the resources and tools we often rely on. There is, however, one ubiquitous and effective tool we can all rely on: movement. Learn more about how intentional movement affects emotions, behavior, and student progress.
📧 pa-sca@ncyi.org
📞 866.318.6294
National Center for Youth Issues
ATTN: PSCA
P.O. Box 22185
Chattanooga, TN 37422-2185
Legal & Copyright Information
All intellectual property rights in and to the PSCA Annual Conference (“the Event”), the content and all materials distributed at or in connection with the Event are owned by the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association and/or the Event sponsors or speakers presenting at the Event. You may not use or reproduce or allow anyone to use or reproduce any trademarks or other trade names appearing at the Event, in any Event content and/or in any materials distributed at or in connection with the Event for any reason without the prior written permission of Pennsylvania School Counselors Association or the presenting speaker.
