Cheryl Pence Wolf received a Chi Sigma Iota Research Grant for her research study entitled, “Factors of Career Meaning: An Analysis of U. S. Naval Academy Graduates.”

Her dissertation research focuses on the effects of career meaning on professional and personal lives. Career meaning describes an experience with a career that provides meaningful, satisfying, and challenging work that contributes to an overall balanced lifestyle and is aligned with one’s values. It extends beyond the pleasurable aspects of hedonic well-being and integrates more fulfilling and self-actualizing life experiences inherent in eudaimonic well-being. As significant relationships between career meaning, values, satisfaction, and wellness emerged in the research literature, it became important to investigate these further.

Conducting her research with a sample of nearly 700 U.S. Naval Academy graduates from the graduating classes of 1985 through 2010, she reviewed the theoretical perspectives related to career meaning including career development, meaning, values, satisfaction, and wellness; explored the current literature and empirical studies related to career meaning; empirically examined factors underlying career meaning utilizing an exploratory factor analysis; proposed an empirical definition of career meaning that distinguished it from other related concepts; and investigated the age, gender, cultural, and environmental elements that may also be associated with career meaning.

Cheryl obtained her B.S. in Economics from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD; a M.S. in Human Resource Management from Troy University; a M.Ed., Ed.S., and soon a Ph.D., from the UF Counselor Education program. She is a Nationally Certified Counselor and Certified Professional in Human Resources with experience working as a naval officer, human resource professional, financial counselor, crisis counselor, career counselor, and instructor of the University of Florida Career & Lifespan Development course for several years. Her interests lie in career development, work-life balance, meaningful work, and wellness.

 

Counselor Education faculty and doctoral students attend the 2012 Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision conference in Savannah, Georgia.

Erica Byrnes, Counselor Education Doctoral Student and the Associate Director for Academic Advising & Career Coaching at the Heavener School of Business, was awarded the Outstanding Advising Award—Academic Advising Administrator from the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA).

She was also named the University of Florida Advisor of the Year.

It was announced on Monday, December 5th that Liz Zatz was the winner of the Advocacy/Social Justice Essay Competition. Liz’s award winning essay focused on disaster outreach as a way for students to acquire advocacy and social justice skills. She will be headed to San Francisco in March 2012 to attend the ACA annual convention with a complementary registration. As an elected member of the ACA Governing Council, Dr. West-Olatunji receives a complementary registration every year that she can gift to anyone who is a member of ACA. This year, she decided to create an essay competition to raise students’ awareness of advocacy/social justice issues in counseling. Congratulations, Liz!