Crisis Observation #1: Veteran Student at Arapahoe Community College

Ashley Bartlett
In my first observation, I went back to my old internship site, Arapahoe Community
College, and sat in on an academic advising session with a veteran student. This particular
students crisis involved a lack of understanding on how to transfer credits. The veteran student
was an adult learner, had completed credits in the past through Veteran Affairs and was looking
to get back into a nursing career. He had worked towards his Nursing degree in the past, and
wanted to see how many credits he needed to complete the degree. He brought his old transcripts
with him to the advising session, but the problem was he had taken classes so long ago which
caused him to have trouble understanding which of his old classes would correlate with current
classes needed for the degree. It was evident that he was already stressed about the career move,
and this barrier to his career transition was causing him a particular amount of distress.
During the advising session, I was an observer only as I did not have the necessary
knowledge to help this student understand which credits he could transfer. The Academic
Advisor Julie Nicholson led the session, and it was a great experience to see the development of
the student in crisis over the hour of the appointment. Julie is the Academic Advisor assigned
specifically to veterans as she not only comes from a military family but married into the military
as well. She had met this student before but they hadnt seen each other in a while, and it seemed
that this student wasnt normally in crisis when they saw each other. Julie picked up on his
distress quickly, and immediately went into helper mode. To start the conversation inside the
appointment, Julie first engaged in small chat to make the student more comfortable. After that,
she was able to get him to calmly explain why he had made appointment and what she could do
to help him. One aspect of Julies approach that I particularly liked is that she was supportive and

encouraging of his decision to seek a Nursing career, but remained very realistic from the start on
what he would need to get there. She knew that he needed very firm answers to his question, as
well as an organized approach to completing his degree.
Throughout the appointment, Julie maintained a confident and firm demeanor, but she
also incorporated elements of their common military connections. Due to the students veteran
status, I could very much see Julie engaging some of elements of Systems/Family counseling
theories (Reynolds, Mueller & Clark, 2009). Julie understood that the context of his crisis was
embedded into his veteran identity, and she placed high value on his experience. In addition, I
think Julie also engaged some elements of Cognitive Behavioral theories (Reynolds et. al, 2009)
because some of the students distress was causing him to irrationally think about failure. She
incorporated these theories by not only showing him what his options were, but by also pointing
out how coming in for the appointment provided him with the knowledge needed to change his
irrational thinking. She focused on help him see his options, and empowering him to build a plan
for completing his degree.
I think Julie was really effective in helping the student because she not only combined
elements of different counseling theories, but she also used her confidence and expertise to quell
the students nerves. Julie was able to easily show the student which classes he would or would
not receive credit for, and she was able to easily explain why. Much of the classes he was not
going to receive credit for were taken too long ago, and now require an updated curriculum. She
explained why this was the case to him, and because of her expertise, he trusted her. After going
through the classes he had taken in the past, Julie reviewed all of the material they went through
and clearly confirmed which classes he would receive credit for. In addition, Julie took another
step and helped the student build a schedule for the future classes he would need to get the

Nursing degree. The student definitely left in a much calmer state, and indicated that he thought
the appointment was very helpful. Over the course of the appointment, I really saw the student
move from distressed to calm, and it was a great experience to see how Julies helping skills
caused this to happen.

References
Reynolds, A. L., Mueller, J. A., & Clark, M. R. (2009). Helping college students: Developing
essential support skills for student affairs practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Crisis Observation #2- International Students at the University of Denver

Ashley Bartlett
In my second observation of students in crisis, I attended a small workshop (as an
observer only) at the International House that was aimed at assisting international students in
navigating their employment visas. One thing that I have learned in my time in Career Services,
is that the topic of employment is a real source of stress for international students. Many of the
international students that come to the University of Denver decide by graduation that they want
to stay in the United States, which means they must gain employment. While a student, it is
fairly easy for an international citizen to gain employment that provides experiential learning, but
after graduation, the visas become more complicated in that they require company sponsorship.
Not many companies choose to sponsor international visas because it costs money and takes
some additional administrative time as compared to no additional money for domestic applicants.
Due to this, many international students experience a lot of stress in the months leading up to
graduation when looking for domestic employment, and this was evident in the workshop I
attended.
In this observation, I was particularly interested in observing the multicultural
competencies of the helper. Marlene Arnold is the Senior International Student Advisor, and she
led the workshop that I attended. The workshop was small with only a few students, and I could
see how Marlene altered her approach to meet the needs of the different cultures within the room.
Marlene acknowledged and validated the many reasons for wanting employment in the United
States, and made sure that the students knew this workshop was meant to empower them in their
job search, rather than guarantee any specific outcome. Marlene did a great job of first learning
who was in the room, and what their unique career goals were so she could tailor her
presentation to them. Marlene was very sensitive to the fact that these students are not

consistently receiving such customized support from all other offices on campus, so workshops
like these can be really effective in helping international students avoid crisis and distress.
The two types of counseling theories that Marlene engaged with are
Multicultural/Feminist and Humanistic (Reynolds, Mueller & Clark, 2009). As I mentioned
previously, Marlene was aware that there were different cultures and countries represented at the
workshop, however she made it known that she understood how these different cultures and
countries created different contexts for each of the students. For example, her acknowledgement
of the different reasons international students have for obtaining employment in the United
States (i.e. better employment opportunities, lack of safety at home, family no longer lives in
home country, etc.) demonstrated her acknowledgment of different contexts. Additionally, she
prompted the students to praise their identity as international students by identifying unique
skills and attributes they have garnered while studying abroad. Rather than focusing on a deficit
perspective, she chose to show the students how they are just as skilled as domestic students, but
face barriers to employment due to citizenship status. To me, this is a powerful distinction for
these students to understand, and I was happy to see Marlene address this.
Along with incorporating Multicultural/Feminist theories, Marlene also utilized tenets of
Humanistic theories (Reynolds et. al, 2009). Marlene used the workshop as a way to motivate
action, and empower the students. Much of her messaging promoted possibility, but her
messaging also aimed at demonstrating the bleak reality of obtaining employment in the United
States without any effort from the student. She made it clear that the International House does
not exist to provide employment opportunities, but rather exists to provide resources and support
in navigating the international employment search. Additionally, she attended to a multitude of
needs in the job search by connecting the students to different campus resources. The students

were helped through more knowledge, and thus through more power in owning their
employment search.
While I think that not every fear of stressor was addressed in the workshop, I do think
helping skills were utilized and the provision of help was achieved. It was great to see helping
happen in one form of a multicultural context, especially as these are the skills that must be
developed for our future careers in student affairs. I also appreciated being able to observe
helping happen for a couple students at a time as this situation could present itself in my career,
and I must be able to help students in crisis whether its one at a time or in a group.

References
Reynolds, A. L., Mueller, J. A., & Clark, M. R. (2009). Helping college students: Developing
essential support skills for student affairs practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.