Sandi Logan, doctoral student in the Counselor Education Program at UF, won first place in the Chi Sigma Iota (CSI) leadership essay contest. The focus of the essay competition was on advocacy to strengthen professional identity within the counseling profession. Her essay will remain online (CSI Leadership Essay Competition) to inspire and guide future generations of counselors as they develop their own leadership talents and styles. Logan was also selected to serve as a CSI Leadership Fellow for the 2014-2015 year. There are only 10 fellows chosen each year and Sandi was one of the few chosen for this honor.

CSI is the international honor society for the counseling profession that focuses on academic and professional excellence. CSI was founded in 1985 and has over 90,000 members today.

Counselor Education students attended and presented at the Florida School Counselor Association (FSCA) Conference held in November.

Dr. Jacqueline Swank has been honored with the 2013 Outstanding Pre-tenure Counselor Educator Award by the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES). She is considered an emerging leader in counselor education among her colleagues. Her research productivity is exceptional. In her past three years at the College of Education, she has collected six awards for her research and practice and is a principal investigator in three grant-funded projects. Additionally, she has 20 publications, 16 of which are as first author with four manuscripts under review and nine research studies under way. Her research interests include counselor development and supervision, assessment related to counseling, creative intervention in counseling, and children and adolescents. She is also well known for her service on several professional committees and organizations and as a dedicated mentor for graduate students.

Olivia Chen, doctoral student in the Counselor Education program, was awarded a research grant from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) for her study entitled, “Development and Initial Validation of the Multicultural Counseling Competence Scale for Counselors in Both Confucian and Collective Countries.” Chen’s research interests include multicultural counseling, indigenous counseling, assessment in counseling, multicultural supervision and counselor education.

The 2013 Florida Counseling Association (FCA) Conference was held in Tampa, Florida in early October and was well attended by UF Counselor Education students, faculty, and alumni. Several students presented poster and education sessions and participated in various conference events.