February 21, 2020

Dear Search Committee,

When I think about Kelly O’Connor, two terms come to mind: critical thinker and eager. I have had the
opportunity to get to know Kelly over the past three years as student in the WestConn Counselor Education
Program where she has been pursuing a Masters’ Degree in Counselor Education focusing on School Counseling.
During that time, I have had the opportunity to watch Kelly’s confidence and counseling skills develop. She has a
strong working knowledge of the Connecticut Comprehensive School Counseling Program and the ASCA model.

Kelly is a critical thinker. She knows how to gather and use data to measure student success and to evaluate
program outcomes. In her Pupil Personnel course, Kelly effectively used research to support her choice of an
evidence-based intervention to improve the achievement of a population of students at her internship that she
identified to be at risk based on the analysis of school and district wide data. Further, she was able to develop a
logic model for the implementation to include a series of data benchmarks to assess progress. Her skills in this
area strongly align with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model plan for developing
gap closing activities.

Kelly is eager to learn and apply all she can about being a school counselor. Kelly has taken the opportunity
many times to enhance her learning outside of the classroom. She engages in professional conferences both on
and off campus. Most recently, Kelly participated in an intensive two day in writing school counseling through a
partnership between WCSU and Stamford Public Schools. Kelly was given a preview of the new Connecticut
standards which will be officially released in July 2020 in accordance with the legislation mandating all schools to
provide comprehensive school counseling framework delivered by a school counselor. Moreover, the opportunity
gave Kelly practice in applying critical skills of using needs assessment data to write curriculum and align it to the
new state, and national standards in an authentic setting. The lessons Kelly wrote will be used by the Stamford as
part of the comprehensive school counseling framework.

I strongly recommend Kelly O’Connor for the open school counseling position in your district. Kelly is a true
professional. She possess the skills, knowledge and dispositions necessary to be a school counselor and she is
eager to continue to learn and grow to inform her practice. If more information is needed please don’t hesitate to
contact me. My information is given below.

Warm Regards,

Dr. Nicole G. DeRonck

School Counseling Program Coordinator
CACREP Unit Coordinator
Assistant Professor
deronckn@wcsu.edu
860-463-7279