The Career Counseling Case Study Project
 
Taneka, a 17-year-old African American female, is a high school junior. She is the oldest of three siblings living with her single-parent mother. Her mother has worked for the past 15 years at a manufacturing plant. Her father has not been a part of Taneka's life.

As the oldest child, Taneka has held major responsibilities throughout her life to support her working mother, such as carrying for her younger siblings, Derrick, now age 14, and Kenya, age 12. These early duties reinforced development of her natural leadership skills. Taneka has been recognized from an early age for being mature, responsible, and dependable. As her siblings have grown, she has been able to have part-time jobs, most recently as a salesperson at a teen fashion store in the local mall. It was here that she first realized she had a knack for dealing with people, and they responded well to her-employers, co-workers, and customers alike. She was recently approached by her supervisor to consider participating in the company's employee leadership training program.

This has started Taneka to think about post-secondary education possibilities. Previously she had thought college was out of her reach, due to the limited financial resources of her family and no history of anyone in her family ever attending college. As such, she had not previously given much importance to her grades. Rather than participating in extracurricular school activities, she focused on working. She s on track for graduating with her class next year and has a current grade point average of 2.05.

Taneka is now questioning her previous assumption about college or other post-secondary educational possibilities, but she does not have a clear idea of what she would like to pursue as a career. Choosing a career and a post-secondary program to prepare for it, seeking financial support, and navigating the admissions procedure all remain mysteries to her. When her school counselor invites her in for her junior-year session to plan for life after high school, Taneka starts to open up about this and seeks help to start the process of planning for the rest of her life.

The Career Counseling Case Study Project provides the opportunity to demonstrate your critical understanding of how career counseling is applied by providing a synthesis and evaluation of career counseling and consultation when working with clients. You will use a case study scenario as the basis of your project paper.

Please be aware that this project is designed to assist in your acquisition of career theory knowledge and therefore, you must apply the concepts that have been taught in this course. In other words, apply concepts unique to career counseling and not for other counseling disciplines such as marriage and family or school counseling.

To assist you in developing a complete case study, the course project includes three components:

In the Career Counseling Theory and Relationship Strategies assignment, you will focus on counseling theory and relationship strategies relevant to your selected case. Specific information regarding instructions for this assignment are located in Unit 3.

In the Diversity Issues in Career Counseling assignment, you will analyze the impact of diversity issues on career counseling. Specific information regarding instructions for this assignment are located in Unit 6.

In your final project assignment, Career Counseling Case Study, you will compile the previous assignments as well as add sections relevant to legal and ethical issues, assessment tools, and the impact of crises, emergencies, and disasters.

To successfully complete this project, you will be expected to:

1. Apply relevant theory and research to career counseling practice.

2. Explain strategies for establishing and maintaining effective relationships.

3. Articulate how biases and assumptions can impact the career development process.

4. Analyze legal and ethical issues related to the career development process.

5. Write effectively in issues related to career counseling and consultation.

6. Analyze the impact of crises, emergencies, and disasters on a person's career planning and development.

To achieve a successful project experience and outcome, you are expected to meet the following requirements.
Your final project assignment should address the following topics. Please note that the number of pages per topic is provided as a guideline and is not a requirement.

1. Theory and Relationship Strategies - Include the information from your Career Counseling Theory and Relationship Strategies assignment to meet the expectations for these topics. Be sure to integrate any feedback you received from your instructor to ensure you meet the grading criteria. While you may use sections of your original paper as it is, be sure to integrate this to create a cohesive assignment. In other words, be sure the section flows with the rest of your paper. (2-3 pages)

2. Diversity Issues - Include the information from your Diversity Issues in Career Counseling assignment to meet the expectations for these topics. Be sure to integrate any feedback you received from your instructor to ensure you meet the grading criteria. While you may use sections of your original paper as it is, be sure to integrate this to create a cohesive assignment. In other words, be sure the section flows with the rest of your paper. (1-2 pages)

3. Legal and Ethical Issues - Interpret and evaluate at least two ethical codes or standards that could be considered for this case. You need to cite which codes you are referencing and which organization it comes from. Appropriate resources include: NCDA, ACA, NBCC, AAMFT, ASCA, AMHCA, NAADAC, and so on (1 page). Be sure to access the most current code of ethics for the each organization.

4. Career Counseling Approach - Appraise your understanding and application of the three steps towards career identification. These include self-awareness, identifying skills, and prioritization. Choose ways in which you can apply this knowledge to this case scenario. You may use the Career Diamond as a guide. (1-2 pages)

5. Assessment Tools - Propose the appropriate selection of an assessment tool for your client. Examples may include card-sort, O*NET, or a Self-Directed Search (SDS). You may create this segment of your project in any way that meets the criteria stated in the rubrics. For example, you can state why you would suggest taking the SDS and then pretend to go through some of the more interesting results. This should demonstrate the skills of interpretation and relationship building with your client. You do not have to go through an entire assessment; just demonstrate that you can select an appropriate assessment tool. (1 page)

6. Impact of Crises, Emergencies, and Disasters - Choose one area that may be affecting your client and address this consideration. You can create either a crises, emergency, or disaster. Examples may include job loss, family illness, or a neighboring earthquake. (1 page)

7. Conclusion - Conclude your project with a summary of career counseling and how it can be beneficial to this client. (1 page).