Counseling Services Q and A

Today's post features a brief Q and A with Monica Clark, Counseling Adjunct Faculty Member extraordinaire at Green River. She'll be giving us an overview of counseling services available at the college.

Monica Clark, Counselor

Hi Monica. To start, what can you tell us about the types of counseling services available to students at Green River?

Monica: Counseling Services provides free and confidential short-term personal counseling to any enrolled student at Green River Community College. We work with students to provide support around any challenges or concerns that are preventing them from doing their best in school and / or feeling their best. We can help students deal with personal problems and situational crises, gain coping and stress management skills, improve self-esteem, decrease anxiety and depressed mood, and learn new relationship skills, adjust to college life, and reach their personal and academic goals. 

If a student feels like (s)he needs to speak with a counselor, what is the first step?

Monica: Counseling Services is open Monday through Friday from 9:00-4:00 pm. Students can either call 253-833-9111 ext 2460, email at chs@greenriver.edu, or visit in person (LC building, room 231) to make an appointment. 

Can students drop in for walk-in counseling services?

Monica: We have drop-in hours for students on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 12:00-1:00 pm, although it is first come first serve so there is no guarantee that a counselor will be available. If a student needs to be seen immediately, they can come in and we will certainly make an effort to see them.

Are there any other counseling service updates that you would like to share?

Monica: Every quarter we do a week of personal development workshops for any student to attend on topics such as study skills, stress management, healthy relationships and test anxiety. We typically do these workshops the third week of each quarter, although we also offer a couple of these workshops at the Kent Station campus later in the quarter.

Master Achiever Center (MAC)

Cammie Ochoa, MAC Specialist

Today's blog post features a Q and A with Cammie Ochoa, Green River Community College's resident MAC Specialist. She'll be talking about services available through the college's Master Achiever Center.

Hi Cammie. Welcome to the blog. To start, can you give us a short overview of the Master Achiever Center?

Cammie: The Master Achiever Center strives to provide Basic Skills students with resources and academic advising in order to support them in reaching their educational and career goals.

What services does the MAC offer?

Cammie: A wide variety of services are offered in the MAC. We support students with identifying and defining their educational and / or career goals. In addition, we assist students in mapping out their specific certificate or degree courses and selecting classes to take each quarter. Another unique service we offer relates to finding an appropriate funding source to pay for school. This can be a very challenging task for many students, but we are here to help take students through each step and make sure they have funding in place. The MAC also offers a number of helpful workshops throughout the quarter, including the Tutoring and Resources Orientation, COMPASS Preparation Workshop, and the Scholarship Search Workshop.

Who is eligible to receive MAC services?

Cammie: The MAC serves students enrolled in Basic Skills. These are students taking ESOL, GED, ABE or I-BEST classes. Each quarter, we make presentations in these classes and invite students to make an appointment and utilize MAC services.

Are there any other highlights about the MAC that you would like to share?

The Master Achiever Center Team

Cammie: The MAC is a fairly new department on campus - we've only been open for just over a year! Developing the MAC from the ground up has allowed us to create processes and procedures which really take into consideration the needs of our Basic Skills students. We have been able to try things and make adjustments as needed depending on our results. It's an exciting time to work in the MAC! Recently, we added additional staff to support the MAC's expansion. We have a full-time AmeriCorps member to support our MAC Peer Mentoring Program and a part-time Advisor / Specialist to provide additional advising support at our Kent Campus. With these additions, we will be able to serve more Basic Skills students, providing them with guidance and support in reaching their educational and career goals.

Questions? You can reach Cammie by phone at 253-833-9111 ext. 2016, or by email at cochoa@greenriver.edu.