During Michigan’s February presidential primary election, Grand Rapids Public Schools kept its schools open as polling took place within the buildings. Many parents of schoolchildren find that keeping class in session during polling presents safety risks. Safety concerns aside, parents took note of one other thing— a lack of teachers.
“[My son] goes there, and I don’t know how safe it was to have people outside of us [students’ parents] polling there,” Marisha Johnson, a Sibley Elementary parent, said. “I really was appalled when I saw a conjoined class being led to recess by one teacher, though.”
With the university’s highest six-year graduation rate, Oakland University’s School of Education and Human Services (SEHS) has had great success in developing quality educators. By introducing more teachers to the workforce, SEHS can help curb the teacher shortage issue.
James Silvestri, the SEHS director of communications and marketing, sat down to talk about the benefits of enrolling in the college, and what being a part of it looks like.
“We have a couple of new programs coming up in counseling, and have a good mix of undergraduate and graduate programs,” Silvestri said.
According to Silvestri, SESH offers plenty of opportunities for aspiring educators.
The differentiator for the SEHS and what other institutions provide is field experience. Oakland has partnered with numerous school districts in the community to give SEHS students real, hands-on learning opportunities.
“[On-the-ground learning] is one of the big selling features of our teaching programs,” Silvestri said. “There’s a lot of hands-on work actually within the schools. It’s not like you get your degree and then go shadow someone, you’re actually working in the schools.”
Silvestri says the university has partnerships with Pontiac, Avondale and the surrounding school districts and that such partnerships have been beneficial to OU student teachers and the the greater Southeast Michigan community.
However, educators are not all that the school produces. Silvestri makes sure to emphasize the inclusion of “human services” in reference to the school’s name. After all, SEHS encompasses 29 programs in total.
“We try to make sure people realize since a lot of people call us ‘the School of Education’ and leave out the ‘Human Services’ portion, that we are also a school of human services,” Silvestri said. “That means we have a lot of programs in counseling, human resources and organizational leadership.”
The SEHS even has its own counseling center, separate from the OU Counseling Center. The Center is a free resource available to all OU students.
“Down on our first floor [of Pawley Hall] we have our Adult Career Counseling and SEHS Counseling Centers, which are separate from the OU Counseling Center,” Silvestri said. “Those are both no-cost. That is available to the OU community and the outside community.”
The hands-on principle of the teaching programs applies to the school’s counseling programs as well. SEHS counseling centers are run to teach students.
“One of the big things that sets us apart is that everything we do is actual life experiential learning,” Silvestri said. “We’re not just theory, we’re actually ‘doing’. With the counseling programs, we actually have a counseling program, and the counseling students work under licensed counselors.”
For undecided underclassmen, an education in SEHS may be the path for them. Prospective students can learn more at the SEHS website.
